Thomas Smales
Recent Park Runs
Thomas Smales became a Kingston athlete, at the age of 11 years, back in 2015. He was one of twenty youngsters, who joined a new, start up middle distance group, which trained on Thursday evenings, at the Costello stadium. He made his club debut at that year’s annual Spring Open Meeting, where he ran in the 1500 metres race. His championship debut came later that year, at the Northern Counties cross country relay championships, which were held in Sheffield. He ran the first leg of the 1.8 kilometres course, for the Kingston under 13 boys team. He has made significant progress over the course of the last 3 years, which has seen him win a dozen County vests, as well as establishing himself, as a member of the Kingston junior team. He has competed at numerous cross country championships, at both national and county level.
In addition to his track and field, and cross country outings, Thomas has been a regular competitor, over the last 3 years, at both of the Saturday and Sunday park runs, in the city of Hull. He also runs the Humber Bridge 5 kilometres as well. Travelling further afield, he has competed on a number of occasions, at the Dalby Forest Park run in North Yorkshire.
On the 25th of August, in the last few days of the 2018 track & field season, he ran in a field of 173 athletes, of all age ranges, from juniors up to seniors and masters, in the Humber Bridge 5 kilometres race. Thomas took 3rd place in the race, covering the course in a time of 20:15 sec. Saturday the 22nd of September, found him in Dalby forest, near Pickering, for another 5k park run. Once again he was running against vastly more experienced runners, this time he was in a field of 171 contestants. He put in another excellent run, covering the course, in a time of 18.14 sec, securing himself another 3rd place finish. Sunday the 11th of November saw him in action at the Peter Pan junior park run at Costello. This time Thomas was running in his own age group, of 11 to 14 years, where he held the record time for the run, of 6:34 sec. This was the last time, he would be able to run in this age category, and he was looking to break his own record, one last time. He was the winner of the race, covering the course in a time of 6:31 sec. Taking 3 seconds off his old best, setting a new course record.
Six days later, on Saturday the 17th of November, he was in action on the other side of the city, competing in the Hull Park Run, in East Park. For the last year, Thomas and the rest of his training group have been talking, about the 11 to 14 year olds age group record, at the Hull park run. It had stood since the 26th of October 2013, and had been set by Kingston’s outstanding Icelandic international runner, Baldvin Magnusson. There was a big field of 507 athletes running the race, and in among them was Thomas Smales. He put in a fantastic performance, which saw him smash the old 11 to 14s record, taking 15 seconds off Baldvin’s time. Thomas slashed a massive 47 seconds, off his own personal best time. Taking 4th place overall in the race, and setting a new course record of 17.26 seconds.
Saturday the 24th of November, saw him back at Costello, this time for the 5 kilometres Peter Pan Park run. He was once again looking to set a new best time for the under 11 to 14 age category, in this race. 195 athletes contested the race, which Thomas won, setting a new 11 to 14’s record of 18.03 sec. He took the 2nd best age grade of day as well, finishing 42 seconds ahead of the 2nd placed runner in this race. This was his first park run victory (excluding his junior victories) and his recorded time of 18.03 sec, would have put him 5th on the 15 to 17 age table. He will now be running his park runs, in the new age group, for the next 3 years.
