All roads led to Sutton Park on Saturday afternoon for the ERRA Autumn Road Relays, the nationals, where those clubs that qualified from the North, Midlands and South came together to decide who was top of the pile when all three regions came together. Again athletes from Wolverhampton & Bilston AC were amongst the medals proving that that are not just amongst the top dogs locally but nationally too.
The club grabbed a gold medal in the U13 boys event, Will Hughes went off first and placed the club in 14thposition with 14.12, Fred Jones ran 12.22 to storm through the field to take the lead, also running the fastest leg on the day in his age group, and Sam Ball with 13.11 brought them home in a total time of 39.45, exactly a minute in front of Herne Hill Harriers in 2nd place. With the heavyweights of Aldershot Farnham & District in 3rd. The B team on William Bassford 14.40, Isaac Danbury 16.16 and Harry Dornan 15.13 were 29th in 46.09. In the U13 girls race the team on Grace Hendy 16.41, Lucy Horton 16.08 and Maisie Roberts 17.41 placed 32nd in 50.31.
There was another medal in the U15 boys competition with Oscar Davis running a solid first leg of 12.47 to put the team in 7th place, Owen Ulfig ran 11.56, the fastest in his age group, to take the lead with Samuel Thursfield running 13.03 to finish runners up by just 11 seconds in 37.45 from Sutton & District AC, Sutton’s final leg runner coming home in a blistering 11.57. The B team of Jack Stockton 13.18, Jayden Burdish 14.04 and Kane Carrington 15.01 placed 35th in 42.23. In the U15 girls race a team of Ronni Read 15.01, Scarlett Willoughby 15.40 and Ruby Buggins 16.47 placed 41st in 48.09.
There was no U17 mens team however the U17 women narrowly missed out on a medal, the team of Isobelle Jones 13.08, Ava Kind 13.51 and Scarlett Williams 14.11 finished in 4th place in 41.10, only 3 seconds adrift of the bronze medalists Wreake & Soar valley.
It was always going to be a tough afternoon for the senior men who only just qualified from the midlands event and with some of their quicker options missing did well to field a team placing 72nd with every one of their 6 runners recording similar times to their previous outing. Dan Turner was off first with 19.48, Tyler Hawley ran 19.46, Steve Ulfig 21.36, Greg Asbury 22.22, Jack Bonser 19.08 and Ben Foster 21.10.
And in the senior womens competition a team of Beth Tabor with 16.09, Sabrina Thomas 17.36, M Mastrolonardo 16.20 and Isobel Cotham 16.28 were 34thin a total time of 1.06.33.
Elsewhere during the week there was a win for Lucy Calrow in the St Modwen’s Charity Run for Land Aid, a fund raising event covering 10k from Longbridge around Cofton Park in Birmingham. Lucy placed 1st female and 7th overall coming home in 40.37. Gareth Briggs placed 13th in a time of 39.27 and won 1st M50 in the Werrington 10k and Dan Maskew was 8th and claimed 3rd in his age group covering the 11k and 690m of total ascent of the Breidden Hills Fell Race in a time of 1.08.12.
Finally, Darren Owen-Jones clocked a solid 1.26.42 to take 17th place in the undulating Shrewsbury Half Marathon and the mysterious Arwie P ran in the metric equivalent of 13.1k finishing in 70th place in 1.16.10.
Dave Norman
