Boys Zone

The U15 Boys combo of James Fraser, Max Harrison and Theo Creed struck again, taking the bronze medals amid high winds and a sudden downpour at the National Road Relay Championships in Sutton Coldfield on Saturday (4 October). The boys were the lone Club representatives at the event, since the U17 Women's team had to withdraw through injury niggles to two of the team, and the Senior Men (despite qualifying two teams from the Southern Road Relays at Aldershot a fortnight earlier), were similarly riven by injuries and unavailability.

The medals provided a fitting finish to a three week run of competitions in which the trio were crowned champions in both the Southern Road and Surrey Cross Country Relays. ‘Their consistently strong performances come from the work they put into their training', says proud coach Anne Hegvold, who has been guiding the boys since they graduated from fellow coach Andrew Davies's group of high-achieving U13s. This time last year the trio (together with Ivan Derian) were winning gold medals in the younger age group at the National Cross country Championships – with Theo taking the individual title – after more unseasonable weather forced the event to move from February to the autumn.

'James, Max and Theo are all multi-talented young sportsmen who have to balance the demands of sports at school with running for Hercules, which puts more responsibility on them to manage their training load at such a young age. The three of them are among the most consistent athletes we have, turning up to the majority of sessions week in and week out'; says Anne, while also emphasising the importance of communication between athletes, coaches and parents.' Hopefully we will have many more years of great performances from the trio'.

Above, James and Max by Bryan Dale at Racephotos, and right, Theo by Mark Hookway

At Sutton Colfield, as has now become customary, James led off the team, jostling for position among some 90 first-leg runners and navigating 'an aggressive start well – both his bib numbers were ripped off, but he had the presence of mind to grab one of them and run with it in his hand', says Anne. James clocked 12:47, handing over in 17th place to Max who ran 12:58, advancing through the field to haul the team up to eighth.

Over to Theo on the anchor leg. 'We have all witnessed what Theo can do and in familiar fashion he brought the team into the medal positions with about 1km to go', says Anne. 'He had been pulling along his competitor from Swindon, sheltering him from the wind until the last 400m when his legs were the more tired and the Swindon athlete managed to pull away to the line, with Theo finishing third in 12:20'