The KT harriers enjoyed a successful day at the Midland Counties Road Relays held at Sutton Park. The amalgamation of the Senior Men’s 6 stage & Woman’s 4 stage races together with the Young athletes championships made a busy day. Highlights of a Super days racing was an outstanding bronze medal from U17W team, with an excellent 4th position for the U17M, and 36th position for the senior men.
First race off were the U15G A & B team who acquitted themselves very well, the A team led off with Beth Gordon had a great start with an opening leg of 16:00 (a 54 second PB) bringing the team home in 13th place, next off was the improving Claudia Nevett who was tasting relay action for the first time, Claudia ran a superb 2nd leg (15:37) to take 5 positions and hand over to Rebecca Hughes in 8th position, Rebecca struggled a little with the distance early season but held on well for 15th position with a PB of 18:46 to ensure we beat a strong Harborough team who finished one place behind us. The incomplete B team due to sickness in the camp, also ran well with 2 athletes competing in the Relays for the first time, Chloe Hearn running well with 17:34 handing over to Priscilla Wilson who ran 18:05.
Next off were the U17M who ran very well to finish in 4th position. Jack Hope was drafted into the opening leg and brought the team home in 7th position with the 10thfastest time of the day and dipped under 13 minutes for the first time with 12:51, Josh Cara just recovering from a serious injury ran superbly to claw back 4 places and showed he is getting back to full fitness to finish his leg in 3rd position with the 8thfastest time of the day equaling his two year old PB of 12:48 , Edward Cannell on the last leg battled hard but could not hold on to third finishing behind Coventry Godivva Harriers with a new PB nearly 2 minutes quicker of 13:58.
The medal winning U17W team compromising of Jess Gordon, Gemma Vaughan, Abby Coleman, got a great start when Jess Gordon’s superb debut run at the relays brought the team home in 5th position with 15:11, the 8th fastest time of the day, Gemma Vaughan ran a solid second leg and maintained 5th position with16:51 and it was left to Abigail Coleman to chase the competitors ahead for a chance for a podium finish, with around 200m to go Abz caught the 3rd place girl and to the delight of all the KTH squad ruthlessly took her to take the bronze by 40m with a solid 16:14. The depleted B U17W team consisted of just Fran Ashworth who battled through to finish well after a poor race due to the effects of a recent virus.
Last race off Senior men’s 6 stage relay comprising a youthful look with David Green, from the road runners section and Lewis Hayes, Jed Hayes, Liam Kirk, David Edwards, and Matt Stewart from the U20 middle distance squad.Dave Green led off and ran a superb leg to being the team home in an excellent 15thposition with 19:01 for the 5.85km route, Lewis Hayes was off next and ran the second fastest squad time of 21:13 brought the team home in 24th, Liam Kirk then ran well with 22:20 but competing against some very strong senior men’s teams, the team slipped to 35th David Edwards ran a solid 4th leg in 21:50 andJed Lewis, after only a few weeks training in his first race for the Harriers, ran a terrific 5th leg in 22:09 (37thposition) and Matt Stewart in his last race before departing for University brought the team home in a very respectable 36th position with 22:18.
Unfortunately the SM team narrowly missed qualification for the National Road Relays (Top 30), but the remaining Young Athletes Teams look forward to the NRR in 3 weeks’ time.
Well done to all athletes who competed.