Brilliant Bronze
On a nail-bitingly exciting, miserably cold, windy and drizzly day in Milton Keynes the Senior Men’s team brought home the bronze medals at the Southern 12-Stage Road Relays on 29 March. In doing so they equalled their best performance of the recent era two years ago and came agonisingly close to emulating the winning teams of 1969 and 1972 as they led by 90 seconds at the halfway mark. The B team were 29th, while in the 6-stage event the Senior Women were 20th.
As U20 Jack Hobden crossed the finish line on the final leg, joy was mingled with relief, as over the 4:13.12 hours it took to bring the team home memories of last year's event were not far from anyone's mind.
On that occasion, the team were unable to give talented American student Hayden Beauchemin enough of a buffer on the final leg to hold off international 800m runner Ted Higgins of Tonbridge, who cruelly snatched away team bronze in the final 200m.
No one wanted young Jack to find himself in a similar position, after having been drafted into the A-team at the last minute, following the withdrawal of Freddie Hessian with a calf issue.
The race is run over alternating long (8.64km) and short (4.98km) legs with each starting and finishing on the track at the Stantonbury Stadium.
As Belgrave Harriers took an early lead, George Mallett (below, left) kicked off on the first (long leg for the team in fine form in 26:48, battling against the elements to hand over in ninth to Will Lewis.
Will (below right) ran a storming 15:02 over the first short leg on his debut for the Club, bringing the team up to fourth and buzzing after the experience: ' I didn't realise it was a glory leg - you can do a lot of damage in the early stages!', he enthused.
At the handover Charlie Sandison (above left) set off alongside Alex Howard of Tonbridge.' I train with him at Battersea,' says Chariie, 'so it was good to go head to head and work together. We caught up with the leaders on the first lap, but on the second downhill he came flying past me. On the last km I was closing in again on him and the Brighton athlete who was now in the lead, but didn't quite have the leg speed to catch them'. Nevertheless he entered the stadium in third in 26:17, handing over to team captain James Stockings (above right) who determinedly raced into the lead with around 1200m to go, in 15:16.
Andrew Penney (left) on leg five now found himself in uncharted territory, robbed of his customary role chasing down the leaders!
'It was weird being out in front. Just me and the watch!' he admitted. 'I've been running for the Club for about 20 years now and this was the first time we had led a relay, so I was quite nervous waiting for the handover. I didn't want to let the team down''.
'It helped to have run the course many times before, so I knew which bits would be slower and which more sheltered against the wind. I went out fairly conservatively then picked up once I saw the 2km sign, so I was happy that it went pretty much to plan', he said after clocking 26:10.
Henry Silverstain, fresh from helping his Edinburgh university team to second place in the Scottish 6-stage Relay Championships, held onto the lead (in 15:30), but by now the tussle was beginning to be all about the mega teams of Cambridge & Coleridge and Tonbridge, gathering behind. With former National Cross Country Champion (and current Southern Champion) James Kingston lining up for Tonbridge, everyone knew that leg seven would be the game-changer.
As predicted Kingston produced the fastest long leg of the day, forging past Oli Carrington into the lead, though now with a target to chase Oli finished strongly behind him in 27:03.
Over the next two legs Joe Bryant (15:45), also making his 12-Stage debut for the Club, and seasoned campaigner and former Club captain, Fred Slemeck (27:10) kept Cambridge at bay, but everyone was feeling the pressure, even the usually sanguine Fred (below), who followed out 'last year's destroyer', Ted Higgins, for Tonbridge, on leg nine.
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My first twelve stage would have been 2012, when we were always roping people in at the last minute and often had incomplete teams', Fred recalls, 'so to spend a good chunk of the race in first, and then know I was going to take over in second added up to a whole other level of excitement and stress at the same time. I love racing, but I don't like time trialling, and being deep into training for the London Marathon I hadn't turned over my legs like that since November in the 5-mile race in Battersea Park where you are in a massive group and it is dead flat. The conditions were really tough, but having great support all over the course helped massively'.
On short leg ten Charlie Eastaugh maintained second, behind the other Higgins brother, fellow international, Jack, handing over in 15:50 to Alex Milne, fresh from being crowned World Champion over 50km, and setting a new Club marathon record of 2:11:41.
All medal hopes were now pinned on Alex. Behind him Cambridge were closing and revving up for the final battle with Tonbridge, so the crucial question was how much of a gap Alex could gift Jack Hobden to hold off the Aldershot, Farnham & District (AFD) athlete in fourth.
As Alex came home in 26:28 he and the Cambridge athlete, Jonathan Escalante-Phillips were virtually neck and neck but vitally, despite tired legs and doing battle with the fierce wind, he had given Jack a cushion of nearly 90 seconds over AFD. Jack only needed to hold his nerve, pace himself and bring home the bronze, which he did with aplomb, finishing in 15:53. Ahead of him, after over four hours of racing, it all came down to a final sprint on the track as international Tom Keen of Cambridge dramatically snatched the win from the Tonbridge athlete by just 4 seconds. HW were only 53 seconds behind in third.
'It was a great squad performance', concluded James Stockings, 'we are so consistent now. If we can keep everyone injury-free, keep showing up and plugging away we will get that win. Becoming Southern Cross Country Champions this year showed us that. Our time will come!'
Ladies First
The sequel for the Senior Men was intended to be written In Sutton Park two weeks later, albeit with a slightly different cast, but for many reasons the team disintegrated in the lead-up week, leaving just four runners making the journey.
The Club's Senior Women, however, made history sending a team for the first time (below left).
Over six equal legs of 5.4km, they were led off by a cautious Claire Grima (21:12), nursing a few niggles ahead of the London Marathon, Molly Pocock (22:46), Zaira Brilhante (28:19), Grace King (22:01), Eloise Davies (20:33) and Alex Carr (21:07) finished a very creditable 27th.
Isabella In form
Isabella Harrison won the individual U17W 5km Championships which was also staged at Sutton Park, in 17:56 (below right).
Afterwards she caught up with former World 1500m Champion, Jake Wightman, who had turned out to run leg two for Edinburgh AC, and had presented Isabella with her Mini Marathon winner's medal three years ago. The following weekend on 18 April, she underlined her current form with a big PB of 16:47.4, finishing second U18W in the Bristol Track Club 5K.
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