National 12/6-stage road relays: Bels up on last year and a new star is born
Belgrave Harriers’ men slashed seven minutes off their aggregate time at last year’s National Road Relays, while the women finished sixth at Sutton Park.
An excellent sixth for the Belles at Sutton Park
Words by Charlie Dickinson
It was a very good day for the club. Two Belgrave women's teams made the journey to Sutton Park for the National 6-Stage Road Relay, the 'A' team finishing in 6th, their highest position since 5th place in 2002 when the field was perhaps not as strong, while the 'B' team finished 15th, higher than many 'A' teams. The first stage for the women is one of the two long stages, over five and a half miles on a tough hilly course.
Naomi Lenane happily volunteered to do a long stage. A very strong cross county runner, Naomi has lately moved up distance from 800m and 1500m and in early February bettered her personal bests for 5km and 10km. She had been ill with a chest infection in March but managed to put in a few weeks of good training since.
Many clubs top load putting their best athletes on the first stage, but Naomi kept her head, ran her own race and finished in a very respectable 20th place just ahead of fell runner Natalie Beadle, who loves the hills and had an outstanding run for the 'B' team.
Steph just ahead of Zoe MacDonald on an early downhill. Photo: Harrison Read
Steph Hewitt took over on the second leg just ahead of Zoe MacDonald, who was running in her first race for Belgrave since swapping clubs so that she could train with the women's group at Battersea. The pair ran together for the whole race, both finding the hills very tough and Zoe just inched ahead at the end in 19th, just one place ahead of Steph.
Léa Adamson was very keen to come and help the team despite her forthcoming medical exams, even bringing her revision notes to study on the coach. She had a very strong race picking off several runners on the way, bringing the team up to 14th at the end of her short stage. Laura Goodson also had a good leg for the 'B'team, now back running at her best after taking several weeks to get over the affects of the flu which she caught at Christmas. They were now up to 17th.
Sarah Astin putting in a shift. Photo: Harrison Read
Our new National Cross Country Champion, Sarah Astin, admitted she was not quite in her best form after a gruelling couple of weeks of work in March with no time for training followed by a few injury niggles.
But Sarah is a team player as well as an elite athlete, and she answered our call. Having a runner of that quality on a long stage makes such a difference to the team and although not at her very best, Sarah still moved the team up inside the top ten and closed the gap to the teams ahead.
A few weeks ago, Emily Bradley smashed her pb for 10km and has the Edinburgh half coming up in a few weeks. After very nearly missing the change overwhich is not ideal for her team managers nerves, she showed her endurance strength with another strong run still in 17th place.
There were now just two short stages to go.
Kate Axford is an outstanding new addition to the team. Photo: Harrison Read
Three weeks ago Kate Axford contacted the club asking if she could join the training group at Battersea. That week she had run an outstanding 16:39 for 5km in Battersea Park. The following week she joined in training with one of the men's groups on the track, coping easily and showing massive talent. Although she competed in athletics as a teenager, she later concentrated on international-level hockey. She gave this up because of repeated injuries and has now decided to return to running which is very good news for Belgrave.
Her run was nothing less than incredible. She brought the team up to 6th place with the second fastest short stage of the day, just three seconds shy of the legendary Gemma Steel.
Sam Munday is another Belle who has changed club recently to train and race with her new Battersea friends. Sam is a very strong cross country runner and the hilly course suited her. The 'B' team were now up to 16th.
Anna Sharp took over on the last lap with the next runner too far ahead to see. She has had a couple of very good weeks training behind her and started strongly, but it wasn't until the last stages of the climb up to the memorial stone that she could even see the Aldershot athlete in front of her.
Anna Sharp leaves everything on the final hill. Photo: SG
Anna used her track speed to quickly reduce the gap as she sped downhill to the pond then to the last bend before the climb to the finish but despite a terrific effort up that hill the gap proved just a little too much and fifth place was lost by just a couple of seconds. Anna had taked over half a minute out of the Aldershot athlete in a very brave effort.
When a member of the 'B' team had to drop out on the Thursday before the race, it was no surprise that one of the Belles’ most reliable members, Ella-May Hards, immediately agreed to step in.
Ella-May much prefers cross country to road and track and is already building up her cycling training ready for a busy Duathlon season in the summer. But she got round the course very well taking yet another place which meant the 'B' team finished ahead of all the other 'B' team including such strong clubs as Aldershot, Leeds and TVH.
So, another indication of this team's strength in depth and with the 'A' team missing their first ever National medal by only just over a minute and a half, they will keep on training hard, improving and gaining experience of these big events.
Then one day, very soon, this team will come home with national medals.
Teams: 1. Leeds 2:10:49, 2. TVH 2:12:37, 3. Salford 2:13:37, ...6. Belgrave 'A' 2:15:11,...15. Belgrave 'B' 2:25:18.
Fastest Long stage. G. Grgec (HHH) 28:34. Fastest Short stage. G. Steel (Charnwood) 16:41, K. Axford 16:44.
Belgrave men make step forward
Oli Garrod, pictured seconds before the gun, delivered our quickest long leg of the day - swapping onto the first leg with only a few moments notice to save us from travel complications. Photo: Steve Gardner
Words by Alex Janiaud
Belgrave’s ‘A’ team qualified for the National Road Relays with a 10th place finish at the South of England relays at the Olympic Park in early April. Six of the 12 runners from that team appeared at Sutton Park on April 15, along with Steve Gardner, who represented Belgrave’s ‘B’ side in Stratford a few weeks back.
Six runners would take longer legs, amounting to just shy of 9km of running, alternating with the remaining six who covered shorter legs of around 5km
Although we were unable to match last year’s dizzying peak of third position during the race, almost every man who raced the same distance leg last year went quicker.
Sam Sommerville produced probably our run of the day.
Ollie Garrod, fresh from a 100km race in an England vest and knee trouble, got the team off to a flying start, finishing his long leg in 26:34, delivering us to 16th. He handed over to Josh Trigwell, who kept the team inside the top 20 despite lacking full fitness. Sams Gebreselassie and Sommerville would then take the team to its highest mid-race position of the day, climbing to 15th and 12th respectively.
Our remaining runners battled valiantly in pursuit of a top 20 finish - and succeeded. James Fox and Steve Gardner kept within fighting distance of Highgate Harriers’ ‘B’ team and Western Tempo, handing over to Jonathan Scott, Rob Kelly and Conall McNally.
With the team having dropped to 22nd, George Loxton stepped up and claimed a position. Oliver Smith then handed to Nick Goolab, who tore around the circuit in 15:42 to claim our final finishing berth. Like Trigwell, Goolab was also a long way off full fitness but left his ego at the door to help the team out. Goolab had answered a mayday call the night before when a string of unfortunate dropouts nearly left us without a 12th man.
The team’s finishing time of 4:25:25 placed it 20th, comparing favourably with last year’s result of 4:32:36 and 26th place. All deserve immense credit, particularly Trigwell and Goolab, who took a risk and put their bodies on the line for the team. Good egg Charlie McCarthy also merits praise for travelling with the team as our reserve, at 24 hours’ notice.
Nick Goolab, on half a hamstring, rounds the final corner in his first race since the same fixture a year ago. Photo: Steve Gardner
“An enjoyable day out for both teams and it was great to see a few new faces don the claret and gold at a championship for the first time,” Kelly said.
“So good to be part of a strong team,” Garrod added, who will now prepare himself for the London Marathon on April 23. “Twentieth at the nationals is a really solid result.”
Team manager Steve Gardner said: “While 20th is still still about 19 places off where we want to be, we have to be happy with such a big improvement on last year. Everyone ran well and there’s a great spirit in the squad. Ollie Garrod and Sam Sommerville are tied on performances of the day for me - and it’s a great example to everyone else that Trigwell and Goolab both turned up when unfit to help the team out; they clearly improved our result and got through the day unscathed.”