National Road Relays

Sutton Park – Saturday 20th October 2007

Women 4 x 4.315 km

Men 6 x 5.847 km

TOUGH GOING FOR BROMSGROVE & REDDITCH ATHLETES

Ideal running conditions greeted our 2 squads who competed against some extremely strong teams from across the country.

The quality of the competition was illustrated in the ladies relay by the inclusion of international athletes Steph Twell (Aldershot) who completed the 4.3km course in 13:41 and Hayley Yelling (Windsor Slough & Eton).  In fact Steph Twell’s time is second only to Paula Radcliffe’s record of 13:26 set way back in 1993. Sophie Morris (Windsor SEH) ran 13:57 to become only the eighth woman to break 14 minutes on this course.

B & R found themselves with 4 different runners to those who had successfully competed in the Midland qualifier.  Helen Russell, who led off the quartet was very happy with her time and was 175th fastest on the day out of over 340 runners. Jane (tent spiker) Anderson, Yvonne Priestman (running over a longer distance than her normal track events), and Caroline Cummings brought the team home in 73rd place (93 runners started leg 1 and 77 complete teams finished).

The men’s sextet found the opposition equally tough over their 5.8km course and finished 75th (out of 79 complete teams) in an overall time of 2:07:54. Again as a measure of the opposition, Dave Kesterton who ran a good first leg and only 2 seconds slower than in the Midland qualifier (when he finished 21st on the first leg), found himself in 71st spot this time. Dave was still 268th fastest (out of 483 runners) with Chris Davies (Telford) the quickest man on the day recording a time of 16:42. On the second leg, Paul Collins, though expressing disappointment with his time, finished in a creditable time despite not being back to race fitness yet. James Hood in only his second senior outing was next away, and with an excellent run improved his Midland qualifying time by 12 seconds. Mark Graham (I shouldn’t have eaten the flap jack before I ran) and John Dineen then both ran good solid legs before Mike Hanson on the anchor leg went over a minute quicker than in the Midland qualifier (BUT see correction below!).

This was another good, if somewhat chastening, racing day out for our 10 Club runners but it was a privilege to compete against and watch athletes from other bigger Clubs.

Thanks to Roger Beacham, Tony Woodward and grandchildren, and James Adie for their support.

Len Quartly

AN APOLOGY

In my report above I said that John Dineen had completed the 5th leg in 22:46 and Mike Hanson the 6th leg in 21:09.

John was mortified that I had recorded what was for him such a slow time when in fact he had run the 6th leg in the time of 21:09.  Sorry John.  I owe you a pint.

Mike, however, was as pleased as punch with my error and has been dining out ever since on the time wrongly given to him. But he actually ran the 5th leg in 22:46. So sorry Mike, but free lunches are over for the time being I’m afraid.

Len Q

29/10/07

Selected results

Ladies Teams

B&R women

Mens Teams

Corrected B&R men's performances