The winter racing season kicked off with the traditional road relays, at Rushmoor Arena and Sutton Park, for the Southerns and Nationals respectively. At Sutton Park we fielded 13 teams across all of the age groups, from U13s through to Seniors, with five of our teams placing in the top ten (U13B, U13G, U17B, SM and SW). A real show of strength for the Red and Black, which few clubs across the country matched.
As coaches and team managers we have developed a strong collective view that it is critical to be represented as these top events, where we can pitch ourselves against the best in the country. We are indebted to James McDonald for his coaching of the young athletes for more than two decades, building an ethos of contesting regional and national events which has resulted in many podium finishes but also B and C teams competing, and to Geoff Jerwood for his stewardship of the Senior teams for many decades.
The Seniors have been turbocharged in recent years by the brilliant work of our team captains Danny Shaw and Julia Wedmore, and the fruits of this were witnessed at the Southern and National Road Relays. At Rushmoor, our men ran the fastest ever time by a Club sextet on a course that has been used since the 1980s, in finishing a brilliant fifth, and for the first time we qualified a B team for the Nationals.
Our women’s distance squad has built a reputation as one of the strongest in the country, and produced another medal winning performance at Rushmoor with their third place A team finish.
At Sutton Park our Senior Men produced their first ever top ten finish, and our women finished 9th, backed up by B teams in 48th (7th B) and 26th (2nd B) respectively. Huge congratulations to all who contributed to these great season openers.
see full results at:
Southerns MYLAPS Sporthive Event Results
Nationals ERRA National Autumn Road Relays
Keith Newton
ps for those who are interested in some history of the Rushmoor event, please see this AW Q and A I conducted with the individual course record holder from 1989!
Andy Bristow remembers his long-standing Southern road relay record – Athletics Weekly