The U13 Boys ‘A’ team secured a superb Bronze team medal in the Midland Counties Road relays with a top quality performance over the undulating 3.8km course held at the traditional Sutton park in Sutton Coldfield. There were fewer teams fielded from the Harriers than previous years, with two teams each in the U13B & U15B, a Senior Women’s team, & Master Men.
U13B Bronze medal winning team Lucas Rogers, Jacob Asher-Relf & Dylan White
The U13 Boys were first in action and Jacob Asher-Relf was the lead leg for the ‘A’ team along with George Separovic who was lead leg for the ‘B’ team. Asher-Relf, making his road relay debut, got off to a flying start and was leading the race after the tricky 400m incline at the start, and despite carrying a slight calf strain he brought the boys home in 4th place on the opening leg with a terrific run of 14:22, setting the 6th fastest time of the day. Dylan White, also making his debut, managed to maintain 4th position with a fine run in the 2nd leg (14:59) and just about keeping the current third place athlete Wolverhampton's Henry Williams in sight to keep the Harriers in medal contention. Lucas Rogers running as anchor produced an outstanding last leg to claw back 40+ seconds from the athlete in bronze medal position, gliding past local rivals R&N to take the Bronze medal in style in 14:40.
Jacob Asher-Relf, highest position on the day with the 6th fastest time for the U13 Boys
This was a great team performance over the 3.8km course and their combined time of 44:01 (an unofficial club record) was a minute quicker than the Bronze secured by the 2010 U13B team (Cara/ Hope/ Mehmet) so they had every reason to be delighted with the performances. The U13 B ‘B’ team also ran well to finish in a respectable 31st place.
The U15B fielded two teams with a tight battle between the two lead leg athletes Josh Clutton & Josh Geddes, with Clutton (‘A’ team) just edging it with a fine run with 14:29 in 23rd place, with Geddes running 14:34 in 26th place. Rio Carr in 2nd leg gained 9 places, with the final 'A' runner Ollie Read maintaining his position to finish in a very respectable 14th place for the team. The 'B' team finished in 22nd place with Ben Brooker (15:51) & Ryan Raulia (15:29) running well.
Three of the squad also ran in the incomplete Senior Men's team with Josh Cannell running well with 22;12 for the 5.8km course, with Jack watson (22:49) & Edward Cannell (21:25) also performing well.
The Senior Womens team performed well finishing in a respectable 52nd place (mid placed in the 104 teams which finished) with Kerry Munn leading off and finishing the 4.2km course with the fastest Harriers split in 18:30, with Sam Brockway (21:02), Trudie Pike (19:56) & Margeret Mulholand (21:22) all running well.
The other main success on the day was the Masters Men who finished in an excellent 7th place out of the 25 teams competing. Tom Shepherd running the opening leg of 5.8km finished in 11th place with 22:06, handing to Stephen Thompson who pulled back 3 places with a fine leg of 21:15. Third leg and the fastest of the harriers contingent was by Phil West who maintained 8th place with an excellent 21:08, with Andrew Clawson making up 1 place with 22:12, Martin Allinson & Phil Brigden holding their positions with 21:36 & 21:23 respectively.
Phil west helping the Master Men to a fine 7th place with the fastest split on the day
With the younger teams keen to race over the same course in 2 weeks’ time at the National Road Relays it will be interesting to see how much they can improve with better familiarity of the course?
Well done to all who competed