Belles bag bronze at 6-stage relays

The Belles went one better this year at the Southern 6-stage relays in Milton Keynes, finishing third in the team standings. The Bels, meanwhile, qualified for next month’s National 12-stage relays.

Bronze for the Belles

Words by Charlie Dickinson

The Belles’ A team produced another strong performance on the road, winning well-deserved bronze medals in Milton Keynes. The B team also ran well to finish 11th, and despite several last minute dropouts, three members were happy to run in an incomplete C team that was 19th at the end of its third lap.

The race returned to the Milton Keynes venue after last year’s race at a very crowded Olympic Park .This is a better course, which starts and finishes on the Stantonbury athletics track and follows a traffic free pedestrian/cycle path outside the stadium. There was a strong, cold North easterly wind on a day with sunshine and clouds.

The Belles got off to a very good start with team captain Steph Hewitt finishing in third place on the first leg, well in sight of the leading teams. Many teams put their strongest runners on first and Steph's time, in probably her strongest-ever run, was the third fastest short stage of the day. Anna Sharp has been struggling with a knee injury and long night duties at the hospital where she works, but nevertheless produced a very solid run for the B team finishing in 9th place. It was good to have half a C team supporting the club with Lara Mangan running first leg.

Triathlete Rachel Brown was sporting the remains of a black eye, the result of being headbutted the previous weekend by another swimmer doing a badly-executed tumble turn. But Rachel always produces a strong run and this was no exception, her time on this the first of two long stages proved to be the third fastest of the afternoon and brought the team up to 2nd. Lydia Gallyer-Barnett and Marianna Patat both found the course quite tough but brought their teams safely round.

Emily Bradley has improved massively this winter, and her run on the next short stage well under 18 minutes was the Belles’ second-fastest on the day, bringing the team home in first place. Zoe MacDonald is finding consistent training hard with her job, but managed the fastest B team leg passing four teams and taking her team up to 11th. Helena Samarasinghe completed the C team's race, finishing in 19th.

Emily Robbins had just two weeks previously run 2:45 in the Barcelona Marathon. Despite perhaps still having some on the marathon in her legs, she ran very well, only just over ten seconds slower than Rachel on this the second long stage. But she also had the unenviable task of being on the same leg as the fastest two of the day from AFD and TVH, and the A team concluded her leg in third position. Natalie Beadle, who has been supporting the team in every race throughout the winter, although since Christmas being troubled somewhat by a knee injury. Her strong run brought the B team up one further place to 10th. 

Leonora Lynn is another runner who has made remarkable progress since joining the club. Her 5km PB has improved massively from over 21 minutes to under 18. She ran strongly in her isolated leg maintaining the Belles third position. Mhairi Hall is in the middle of her London Marathon training but as ever supported the team. Her run kept the B team in tenth.  

Karen Xiang completed the race for the A team with another excellent time under 18 minutes. This is very difficult when the teams become so spread out in the latter stages of the race. By this time the team were a long way ahead of Herne Hill in fourth so deservedly won their bronze team medals. Emily Goff prefers shorter track races but completed the Belles B team, dropping just one place to 11th with a good run.

RESULTS. 1. AFD 2:11;58,  2. TVH 2:13:08,  3. Belgrave A 2:13; 28,.... 11. Belgrave B 2:24:18. 

Belles A: 1. S. Hewitt 17:30, 2. R. Brown 31:03, 3. E. Bradley 17:50, 4. E. Robbins 31:14, 5. L. Lynn 18:10, 6. K. Xiang 17:58.

Belles B:  1. A. Sharp 18:21, 2. L. Gallyer-Barnett 35:14, 3. Z. MacDonald 18:15, 4. N. Beadle 33:46, 5. M. Hall 18:59, 6. E. Goff 19:41.

Belles C: 1. L. Mangan 20:48, 2. M. Patat 38:00, 3. H. Samarasinghe 20:34. 

Heyden sparkles on Belgrave debut

Words by Alex Janiaud

The boys did themselves proud in Milton Keynes, their A team officially finishing 12th in the team standings. Rogue directions from a marshal prevented the team from finishing higher, but the Bels did enough to meet their objective and secure a spot at the National 12-stage relays in Sutton Coldfield next month.

Sam Sommerville kicked things off for the A side, staking his claim for a spot in the national team with a superb long leg of 27:08. He handed over to Conall McNally - who is deep in London Marathon training - with the Nottingham-born runner doing very well to keep his short leg under 16 minutes. Fin Dyer and Nick Goolab set blistering times - the latter posting our fastest short leg in 15:14 - before handing over to Max Heyden for his Belgrave debut, who set the club’s quickest long leg of the day in 26:16.

The team was steadily progressing from 17th and Ollie Smith carried on its fine work, leading the Bels to their highest placing of the day in fifth, before things took a turn. Ugur Altan, who is in excellent form, was unfortunately sent in the incorrect direction by a marshal. The A side dropped to 19th, and the day simply became about qualifying for nationals.

Happily, the boys were up to the task. Samuel Harry maintained our position before Charlie Wood began the slog of inching us up the leaderboard. Ollie Jackson, Jonny Scott and ‘Big’ Rob Kelly rounded off a strong day for the team, climbing stage-by-stage to 12th place. Our estimates indicate the team would have finished as high as sixth, but that’s all in the past now.

We also fielded a four-strong B side comprising team manager Steve Gardner, Alex Janiaud, James Preston and Charlie McCarthy.

We’re fired up and ready to go for nationals, where we hope we can make a mark if our biggest guns are available. And the southern relays proved that, if needed, there’s depth at the back of the arsenal if we need it.

Full results here