Defending series champion Wellington is first class again

Lachlan Wellington, wearing number one, has a chance to defend his title

The talented City of Portsmouth athlete, 15, recorded an impressive time of 15min 38sec.

He now has a win and a second place to his name this series from the two 5k races he has done this year.

To qualify for the series each athlete has to do three events.

It means the 2016 series champion can still defend his title with the finale to come on Wednesday, August 30.

Wellington has been racing well again this summer and competing strongly at national level, including a strong fourth place at the English Schools’ Championships over 3,000m.

This series has been exciting with different conditions for each race, ranging from windy, rainy and very warm.

On Wednesday it was tough to get personal bests.

Aldershot, Farnham & District athlete Elliot Robinson was second with a time of 15.48.

Third place went to James Baker who finished in 16.04 and Southampton’s Matthew Bennett ran 16.20 in fourth.

Laura Brenton, who also runs for Southampton, finished first lady with a time of 17.35.

Next was Winchester’s Vicky Gill who ran 18.12 and third was Totton’s Helen Wallington, who also finished first in her age category of VW45 in a time of 18.22.

The race saw 122 people finish the course around Lakeside North Harbour.

City’s Paul Bleach, Mark Hargreaves, Martin Williams and Holly Wilkinson all finished first in their age categories with good performances on Wednesday evenings.

For details about how to enter race five log on to portsmouthathletic.co.uk