Alex Bell and Joe Wigfield run 5km PBs in Battersea

Bell and Wigfield excel at the Friday Nights Under the Lights x Mizuno 5km in Battersea on New Year’s Eve as Clare Elms sets world W60 best.

In perfect cold, but sunny and still conditions, Joe Wigfield and Alex Bell set 5km PBs in competitive races as additionally Clare Elms set a world and UK W60 best of 18:15, Steve Smythe reports.

Both Wigfield and Bell win £1000 for their efforts.

Wigfield, who ran a 3:56.46 mile PB last summer in Dublin, sprinted away in the final 100 metres of the track finish with short out and back laps between the bandstand and the track.

His final 1300m lap was covered in 3:28 (after previous laps of 3:40 and 3:39) and his completed time of 13:37 improved his best set in Battersea in November by a few seconds and his hard kick saw off the challenge of Ted Higgins and Italian Sebastiano Parolini who were both given 13:38 clockings.

Higgins recently ran a 7:57.31 3000m to win the South of England indoor title was taking part in his first official 5km race.

His Tonbridge clubmate and former English champion James Kingston destroyed his road PB with a 13:43 clocking to take fourth while Higgins’ twin brother Jack was also well inside 14 minutes in his debut 5km and showed good endurance for someone who has run a 1:45.33 800m this year.

The first eight broke 14 minutes.

The 2021 Olympic 800m finalist Alexandra Bell continued to show her improvement on the road as she kicked away comfortably on the last of three bigger laps.

Her time of 15:24 gave her three seconds advantage over Hannah Irwin, who also smashed her previous best as she passed 15:02.64 5000m track performer Alex Millard as they hit the finishing straight. Millard also get a road PB by some margin.

Bell ran 3:17 for the first small lap of 1100m followed by big laps of 4:11 4:06 and then a fast 3:50.

Lauren Church also broke 16 minutes in fourth (15:55) though Rebecca Weston just missed the barrier as she was given 16:00 though it was her best quality run on the roads since 2013 when she was in Britain’s medal winning team in the World Cross-Country Championships in Bydgoszcz. Faith Kipyegon was the individual winner that day as Britain took team bronzes behind Kenya and Ethiopia.

World W60 record for Elms

In her first race as a 62-year-old, Clare Elms shows no sign of slowing down as she finished 2025 with another world best or record in the first of the open races that preceded the elite events.

In August she ran 18:15 on the overall downhill course at Kingsley which was ratified by the BMAF as a UK best.

However, the time wouldn’t have counted a senior best and this race gave her one last chance to set a better legal time than her 18:20 at Battersea in June which statisticians regard as the current world W60 best.

Having spent most of the last few days in hospital visiting her ill 93-year-old father, she wasn’t sure she would be in top form.

After holding back initially, she passed 4km in a seemingly too slow 14:48 (18:30 pace) but feeling strong and passing younger runners on the track she utilised the speed that has seen her set 1500m and mile world records this year and a 3:27 final kilo and strong kick saw her run 18:15 to beat her Battersea time by five seconds.

Her big 1300m lap times of 4:56, 4:51 and 4:38 confirm her gradual acceleration.

Even though she hasn’t broken 18 minutes since 2019, given her strong finish here she is still hopeful of doing so again one last time in 2026 in warmer conditions in the spring.

Pick of the younger performances in the 5km races came from under-17 Joseph Scanes. The English Schools and Schools International 3000m champion debuted with a 14:31 to win an exciting A race as he fell just a few seconds short of Alex Lennon’s UK under-20 lead for 2025 of 14:29.

Irish sub-two 800m runner Louise Shanahan won £1000 for easily winning the gender challenge road mile which saw the women given a clearly too generous 37 second start. She timed 4:46 with Max Merrien (4:23) falling 14 seconds short.

Elite men (5km): 1 J Wigfield (Wirr) 13:37; 2 T Higgins (Ton) 13:38; 3 S Parolini (ITA) 13:38; 4 J Kingston (Ton) 13:43; 5 T Dodd (Bir) 13:47; 6 J Gray (C&C) 13:48; 7 J Higgins (Ton) 13:53; 8 S Bramwell (Herne H) 13:53; 9 C Brisley (N&EB) 14:02; 10 H Johnson (Salford) 14:05
U20: 1 B Pye (Hough) 14:12; 2 C Benyan (C&C) 14:24; 3 H Johnson (Luton) 14:25; 4 R Tuck (Chelm) 14:26; 5 W Rabjohns (Poole) 14:32

Elite women (5km): 1 A Bell (P&B) 15:24; 2 H Irwin (C&C) 15:27; 3 A Millard (Inv EK) 15:27; 4 L Church (Read) 15:55; 5 R Weston (Inv EK) 16:00, 6 D Moressa 16:03; 7 Y Lock (TVH) 16:04; 8 F O’Hare (Liv) 16:09; 9 E Fennelly (Belg) 16:10; 10 J Gibbon (Read) 16:10
U20: 1 K Pye (AFD) 16:15; 2 R Flaherty (Bing) 16:20; 3 I Edwards (B&MH) 16:29
W35: 1 C Baker (B&W) 16:18
W55: 1 K Harris (High) 18:12

Open 5km
A race: 1 J Scanes (B&B, U17) 14:31
U20: 1 S Melero (StEP) 14:37; 2 A Smart (Card) 14:37; 3 B Andrews-Callec (Jers) 14:38
B race:
M50: 1 S Coombes (Herne H) 16:18; 2 J Prest (Traff) 16:21
C race:
M55: 1 T Booth (G&G) 17:24

Women: 1 M Blizard (Bed) 17:40
W60: 1 C Elms (Kent, W60) 18:15 (World & UK W60 best)
Gender Challenge Mile: 1 L Shanahan (C&C/IRL, W) 4:46
Fastest man: M Merrien (Gue) 4:23
U15: 1 T Creed (HW) 4:35
Open mile:
W60: 1 C Anthony (C&C) 6:11; 2 L Woolhouse (Vets) 6:23
W65: 1 P Whitter (Strag) 6:25