Silver for Teuten as City athletes impress in Bedford

Alex Teuten led the way with a second place in the 3,000m steeplechase, clocking a new personal best of 9min 01.43sec.

Tom Horton, of Sheffield, took the win in 8.58.81 but Teuten was eight seconds clear of the third-placed runner Adam Kirk-Smith.

Meanwhile, Tom MacSwayne and Tom Farres were also in good form in the mile and the pole vault respectively.

MacSwayne finished 11th overall after clocking 4.19.04 and was second under-20.

Farres was also second under-20 athlete in the pole vault with a clearance of 4.55m as he secured a good eighth position overall.

City coach Paul Farres was impressed with what he saw from the City trio at the championships in Bedford.

He said: ‘Alex Teuten hasn’t done a 3,000m steeplechase for quite some time – not since last year and second place was a good result for him.

‘For a while I thought he was going to catch the guy in the lead.

‘Alex was very strong and he was closing the gap.

‘He is ideally built for the steeplechase, very tall, and he is good over the water jump.

‘It’s such a tough event and I think Alex feels he has room for improvement.

‘He got so close to the sub-nine minute barrier and his time ranks him 17th in Great Britain so it was a good performance.

‘Tom was pleased with his result in the pole vault more than the height he cleared.

‘It was the first time this year he has gone from a full run-up due to injury and to get eighth place was a good result.

‘He was second under-20 after Charlie Myers who is just back from the World Youth Championships.

‘In the mile race Tom MacSwayne put in another good performance.

‘They ran the race as a straight final and left it until quite late so the athletes had to wait around a lot.

‘Tom ran a new personal best of 4.19 and the first lap was very slow, nobody wanted to take the pace on.

‘It turned into a bit of a burn-up after that.’

‘Tom is now coached by Alex Budd who has a nice little squad at the Mountbatten Centre.

‘He trains with Matt Gordon, from Havant, and some of young middle distances runners like Saffron Moore and Anya Pigden.

‘Tom is also at university in Cardiff where he trains with a very, very fast group.’

City of Portsmouth are back in action on Saturday when they make the long trip to Doncaster for the fourth match of their British Athletics League division four season.