What a day here are a few photos and reports from the Midland Cross Country Relays held at Sutton Park on Saturday 28th March. It was one of the clubs finest days in recent years.
Ladies first, a report from Debbie Blakeman
Whilst the men had a history making performance yesterday at the Midlands Road relays let’s not forget the solid performances of our female athletes.
Such is our strength and depth we fielded two complete teams the A’s asserted themselves amongst the best in the area finishing in 9th overall position two places ahead of local Tipton rivals. Tessa Clarke flew round in a fast 18.05, followed by Audrey Wilson 20.18, then Kate Williams finding great form 19.44, with solid performances from Jackie Halford 20.51, Lucy Cambridge 20.58 and great to have Kathryn Morgans back running well in 20.29 on the anchor leg.
Many of the B team runners were new recruits experiencing their first relays and they certainly give it their best finishing in a still credible 35th place. Deb Blakeman 21.19, lead them out followed by Hayley Richards 22.09, Melissa Lowke 24.54, Amy Lever 25.49, Imogen Harley 26.41, and Hannah Pearson 23.08.
Well done ladies performances to be proud of a tough 5km course in blustery conditions but all was worth it for a piece of Lucy’s delicious rocky road round the camp all washed down with replenishing vitamin drinks from Tom.
Whilst the men had a history making performance yesterday at the Midlands Road relays let’s not forget the solid performances of our female athletes.
Such is our strength and depth we fielded two complete teams the As asserted themselves amongst the best in the area finishing in 9th overall position two places ahead of local Tipton rivals. Tessa Clarke flew round in a fast 18.05, followed by Audrey Wilson 20.18, then Kate Williams finding great form 19.44, with solid performances from Jackie Halford 20.51, Lucy Cambridge 20.58 and great to have Kathryn Morgans back running well in 20.29 on the anchor leg.
Many of the B team runners were new recruits experiencing their first relays and they certainly give it their best finishing in a still credible 35th place. Deb Blakeman 21.19, lead them out followed by Hayley Richards 22.09, Melissa Lowke 24.54, Amy Lever 25.49, Imogen Harley 26.41, and Hannah Pearson 23.08.
Well done ladies performances to be proud of a tough 5km course in blustery conditions but all was worth it for a piece of Lucy’s delicious rocky road round the camp all washed down with replenishing vitamin drinks from Tom.
What a day to remember!
A report from Dan Brazier
We turned up in force with 3 full teams, 36 Wolverhampton and Bilston AC runners full of hope and confidence going into the day.
Course was changed just before the start so we was all a bit confused on what the distance was and how tough it was going to be, but after a few of us warmed up on the course it was obvious it was going to be a tough day.
Out of the 36 runners we had a 9 new members making their debut for Wolves and Bilston on the Road at the Relays, Lee Slater, Gareth Briggs, Grant Cummings, Ste Abrahams, Daniel Owen, Jason Paddock, Leroy Brown, Mark Ferguson and Paul Clark. Once welcomed around the camp they slotted in as if they’ve been here forever which was great to see.
On to the race we had the perfect start with Lee Slater coming over the hill in 4th and setting us up lovely, Paul Thacker had a great run in 35th, putting the B team in a prime position to chase down a National (top 25th Midlands team) Qualification and Leroy Brown also ran 1st leg for the C team and ran a stormer on a tougher than tough 5.6mile long leg.
Hammond held 4th chasing down 3rd with the 20th fastest 3.2mile short leg time on the day, Jason Paddock stepped up into the B team at a last minute request by me, but with no messing about on his debut did us proud holding us in contention and the legend that is Paul Tabor was rolling back the years having a strong run putting the C team in the top 50 at this point.
Ross was off next looking very nervous after having used an whole roll of toilet paper all before 11am, but off he went hunting down with the 8th quickest long leg on the day to put us into 3rd and opened up a gap for us by just under a minute, Ste Abrahams in the B team also making his debut took one for the team on a long leg and ran good pace to put B team closer to the top 25, the C team saw Gary Colyer step up at short notice from a Short leg to Long leg to run a strong 36mins.
Dave Smith in no mans land held 3rd with all is experience to maintain a good buy levitra online gap, Simon Calrow gained the B team 2 places and Lionel Spittle ran as strong as ever to hold the C team teams position.
Martin Williams was a injury doubt in the weeks running up to the relays but insisted to run a long leg where he looked uncomfortable but took one for the team in hero style and he still maintained an healthy lead over 4th, B team saw Mark Moore run strong on the dreaded long leg and hold position and the C team with Mark Ferguson making his debut had a great race.
On the 6th leg in A team we had recently signed Gareth Briggs making his first outing in a Wolves vest, doing us proud running solo in no mans land held the 3rd place spot, Ad Guy in the B team gained 3 place to put us in a strong position going into the half way stage and Duncan Davies also ran well and hold the C team position.
Then Phil Nicholls took over in our A team and smashed the Long leg (4th quickest long leg on the day) putting us 2 mins in front of chasing Tipton who sat in 4th, James Toddington after tutting and blowing about running a long leg did us and himself proud running 34 mins, Rob Edwards as consistent as ever ran well in the C team.
James Skelton ran 17th quickest short leg on the day, he held our lead over 4th to just under 2 min, Pete Watling a 400m runner showed he can step up to longer distance running with a strong run and in the C team saw Abbo in his infamous Baggy shorts over his not so tight running tights run well.
9th leg saw me run hard to maintain 3rd with Tipton chasing us down closing the time gap to 1min30sec, Richard Jones gained a place for the B team showing he can run well when needed to and C team saw shy Paul Clark run well to gain 2 places.
10th leg we had Grant Cummings, new to the running scene with only his 2nd outing in a Wolves vest had the task of holding on and after going the wrong way at the top heading out on a long leg it gave Tipton who had one of their strongest runners chasing him down the fight to go for us and they reduced the gap to 8 secs, B team saw Mark Anslow run an impressive time of 17:53 and make 5 places to put us 29th and he was 9th quickest on that leg, C team had Neil Grey who ran hard as he went off in the mass start.
Matt Richards on 11th leg ran the race of his life hanging on, we were neck and neck with Tipton who were pushing us to take 3rd, Dan Owen in the B team was part of the mass start and is impressive time 3 had gained us places and put us 26th just one place of National Qualification, in the C team saw “Pete the Feet” Pete Stark ran a good leg, but after all the coaching and advise he’s gave us over the years he still needed us to shout him on and to tell him not to look behind and focus on the line as he had a rival breathing down his neck.
Last leg, we was neck and neck with Tipton battling out for Bronze we had youngster Jack Bonser tucked behind Tipton’s Tom Holden for the first 2 mile then he put a kick in to open a gap (we only found that out after). At this point we were all unknown to this. We were all waiting at the 500m to go where we saw him come around the corner with no site of Tipton on his tail, there was a load cheer as he passed us, then what I saw after that i’ll never forget (The Sea of Red) with runners, coaches, wives, kids and everyone from the club sprinting across the field to see Jack finish it was great!
The B team results were unknown and Tom Warrender ran 12th leg in the mass start with his first race for the club in a while, as results streamed through the next day we found Tom had run quick enough to gain 3 places to put the B team 23rd and qualify for Nationals. And as hero’s were made we had our top hero Carl Morgan bring home the C team to have us 3 complete teams for the first time in a long time.
Many thanks to all the spectators and our marvellous coaches for coming out to support us.
It was a great day out for everyone involved with the club. Proud of us all, Dan
The full results are on: http://www.midlandathletics.org.uk/PDFS/2015_RES_150328_MidlandRoadRelayresultsMen.pdf
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