The South of England Road Relay Championships were held in Milton Keynes on Sunday with club teams from across the region vying for titles, medals and qualification for the National equivalent at Sutton Coldfield on April 12th.
Herne Hill Harriers fielded one women’s team of six and two men’s teams of 12 and enjoyed another special day at this event.
The women’s team placed fifth while the improving depth in the men’s squad was more evident than ever with the A team finishing eighth and for the second time in the club’s history the B team, third in this category and 21st overall, joined the A team in securing national qualification.
The women’s squad depth was also tested with what had appeared to be a crippling list of absences due to injury issues and outside commitments and only an 11th-hour emergency call to team captain Julia Wedmore saved the day and ensured a complete team would race.
Wedmore has endured a long injury rehab battle of her own following a cycling accident last summer and heroically stepped into the breach for her first race since the London Marathon almost a year ago to run the fifth stage to maintain the strong position the team was holding.
Sarah Grover kicked things off with a strong first leg start, clocking 17:48 for her 5km stint for the 12th fastest female short stage overall. She handed over to Rowen Hughes in seventh.
Hughes, feeling the effects of big marathon preparation, completed her longer 8.6km leg in 13th place (33:03). W40 Leonie Biemolt moved up three positions on the next 5km leg, running a good 18:17 to lift the team back into the top 10 at the halfway stage.
Next was an 8.6km stage with another W40 Gaby Reynolds storming through into fourth with the seventh quickest long stage overall (30:53).
Her time was only beaten on this actual leg by national cross country champion Jess Gibbon, who led her Reading team to the overall win. Next up was Wedmore’s superb comeback with 5km in 19:58 before recent recruit Bryony Proctor brought the team home in fifth place (18:11).
The men’s A team finished eighth for the third successive year, but each year’s overall team time improves to maintain this position as the aggregate of the 12 men on Sunday was two minutes faster than last year.
This race alternates the long stage with the shorter one and can see team positions swing throughout a long afternoon of racing.
Andrew Clarke ran a solid 28:03 for 25th at the end of the first leg.
U20 Durham University student Harry Bell moved through to 20th with 15:30, the fastest short-stage time from among the Harriers men.
Australian Brandon Dewar produced a superb 26:47 for the fastest long leg in the team to move up to 12th. Sam Brashaw’s 15:46 gained another place to 11th, then team captain Daniel Shaw nudged them up to ninth (27:49).
The team reached their eventual eighth position by halfway courtesy of Ronan Tanguy clocking 15:42, but an exciting second half battle was then to ensue with the Ladywell-based Kent AC A team. Tom Austin made a strong debut (27:17), then Max Rose was seventh (16:02) after eight stages. Morgan Roberts ran a quick 27:07 on a strong ninth leg to hold eighth.
Tom O’Mahoney (16:19), Oliver Mills (27:52) and Harry Roberts (16:02) maintained this through to the finish despite the close attentions of the chasing Kent squad.
The B team’s 21st-placed finish guaranteed an entry for two Herne Hill men’s team in the Midlands for the second year in a row, having never previously been able to do so. They were third of all B teams ahead of strong clubs such as Cambridge & Coleridge (24th overall), whose A team had finished second, Kent AC (26th) and Hercules Wimbledon (28th).
The dozen men who achieved this feat were, in running order, Matt Cartwright 28:53, M50 Ben Paviour 16:43, Alex Russell 28:10, Tom Patterson 15:49, Jack Brotchie 28:54, Seve Loudon 17:16, Andrew Warburton 28:58, Bryn Reynolds 16:50, M45 Ben Millar 30:35, Fintan Kearney 16:46, M40 Jeff Cunningham 29:38 and Stephen McLeod 17:18.
The club will hope to mount a strong challenge for medals in the women’s race and highest ever men’s A and B team positions at the National Road Relays.
Geoff Jerwood