We were back at Sutton Park at the weekend for the Midlands Road Relays hoping to qualify for the National version in two weeks’ time. Both the men and the women were scratching around to get teams out and neither were at full strength but performed incredibly well to secure a place on the start line in a fortnight. Whether they take up that option will be down to the team managers and who is able to turn out again.
The men were off first at high noon with Jon Hart taking on the first leg and bringing the club over the line in 5th place in a rapid 16.55, Jag Singh Boparai made his relays debut on the second leg in 19.41 with the club in 21st position, Jonny Morris was off next moving the club up to 14th with 17.18, a very late reshuffle meant Dave Norman went 4th with 23.12, Dan Turner put the club into 24th with 18.22, Andy Dyall ran 23.18 dropping back to 31st, Ash Atkinson ran 20.27, Gary Worrall ran 20.03, Charlie Tait-Harris also debuted with 18.58 to drag the club up to 25th place, Tom Isherwood suffered cramps but still managed 19.19 and moved up a spot, Jay Patel lost a single place but ran a solid 22.31 and Louie Lambeth stormed round in the mass start to cement 25th place with 18.38. With so many missing this was an incredible performance from the dozen that pulled on the vest to finish with a total time of 3.58.42. We had a very limited B team of only two after a lot of dropouts with Rob Edwards taking the first leg with 24.23 and Russ Blair going off second with 30.08.
The ladies were off ten minutes later with Lucy Semple back to take on the first leg with a 22.48 finish, Sabrina Thomas put the club in 22nd place with 22.21, Lucie Tait Harris ran a controlled 23.02 with a track race in mind on the following day managing to move the club up into 19th spot, Lindsay McCallum put her injury woes behind her running 21.45 and gaining another additional couple of places, and it was great to see Abbie Thompson and Natalie Griffiths taking on the road relays for the first time running 27.34 and 24.45 respectively to maintain that 17th place finish. Again, with many missing this was a superb effort from the ladies to achieve national qualification in a total time of 2.22.14.
Three of our athletes who certainly would have been in Sutton Park were in Germany for the Berlin Half Marathon, a super-fast course and one of the half marathon majors. Tony Cheema was first back for the club with 1.22.20 taking 1045th place, Carl James ran 1.28.46 in 2329th place and Andy Horton, who has been blighted by injury, was 3024th in 1.31.25. Also, in northern Europe and over double that distance at the full marathon were Dave Joynson and Gill Mitchell who both took part in the Gent Marathon in Belgium, Dave recording a time of 3.31.26 and Gill clocking 5.59.20.
There were some chaotic scenes at the Wolverhampton 10k where athletes found huge queues at race registration on the morning of the event. With many still not being given numbers as the start time approached some were given handwritten numbers and others told to compete without a number and they would “sort it out afterwards”. As a result many had no chip do not appear in the results, certainly Charlie Tait Harris and Keith Carter are both missing from the final standings, Charlie running around 35 minutes and Keith around 40.
Strangely Simon Calrow is listed on the results as “Tipton” so he might have some explaining to do, he was certainly wearing a Wolves & Bilston vest and came home in 214th place in a chip time of 45.19 to take 2nd M65.
The positions are all over the place on the results, so it seems fair just to give finishing times, Sunny Sunar finished with a chip time of 42.08, Dave Norman ran 42.42, Natalie Griffiths clocked 45.09, Brett Robinson is listed having run 46.40, Nicholas Price finished in 49.39, to take 1st M70, Abbie Thompson clocked 50.45, and Suzanne Giles 53.17. There may have been more but they are either not listed in the results at all or not listed as Wolverhampton & Bilston athletes.
There was some track and field action at Pingles Stadium on Sunday in very untrack like conditions, wind and blustery rain making the search for fast times incredibly difficult, but this was more a day to put down an early season marker in the Nuneaton T&F Opener. Over 100 metres Aupromeyo Mukherjee clocked 11.84 in 3rd place in heat, Shae McIntosh was 7th with 14.14 in heat 8, Chyloh McKenzie clocked 11.07 to take the win in heat 12, with Leo Watson clocking 11.34 in 3rd and Theo Nicholls 12.03 in 7th in the same heat. Seb Palmer raced over 800 finishing 3rd but there were timing issues in his heat so frustratingly no times were recorded. James Crust took a win in heat 11 of the 200 clocking 22.88, Tammy Saunders was 2nd in heat 12 with 25.87, Michael Deans won heat 13 with 23.13, with Chyloh taking the runners up spot in 23.22. Grace Hendy raced over 3000 metres coming home in 9th place and 2nd lady in 10.51.50. Connor Blincoe placed 2ndin heat 3 of the 400 in a time of 54.58, and Lucie Tait Harris placed 8th over 1500 stopping the clock in 5.29.79. In the hammer there was a 2nd place finish for Georgina Neilson with a throw of 38.90.
Dave Norman
