Belles win National Road Relay bronze as Olympic finalist Stewy McSweyn stars for the boys
Belgrave Harriers secured bronze in the women’s National Road Relay championships on a proud day for our club. The Bels, meanwhile, handed a debut to Australian record-holder Stewy McSweyn.
(l-r) Kate Axford, Sarah Astin, Kristina Popadich and Lea Adamson receive their national bronze medals. Photo by Charlie McCarthy
Belles strike bronze in Sutton Park
Words by Charlie Dickinson
A very strong Belgrave women's 'A' team won their first ever medals in the National 4-Stage Road-Relay at Sutton Park. They finished just 15 seconds behind the winners Aldershot at the finish. The Belles 'B' team were 29th, easily within the first half of a field of 84 teams that started the race.
Kristina Popadich (A107) among the chaos of the downhill start.
Kristina Popadich led off in the first frenetic leg with many weaker teams placing their fastest runners there leg to give them a good race. Kristina, now running at her best after a summer recovering from injury, ran very sensibly and finished strongly in 16th place.
Captain Steph Hewitt (left) with Kate and Sarah roaring Kristina up the final hill.
When Léa Adamson set off on leg two, there were a number of runners just ahead of her. Léa was able to pick off five of these with another strong run to bring the team up to 11th at the half way point but still 51 seconds behind the leaders Aldershot.
Lea Adamson powering home.
Sarah Astin confessed to not being at her very fittest, but she still managed the quickest leg on stage 3, taking another seven places. Now the Belles were up to fourth and hoping for medals.
Sarah Astin improved our position by seven places.
However, the lead was still 38 seconds when Kate Axford set off on the final leg. Kate did everything she could, bringing the team so close at the end with the third fastest leg of the day but the gaps proved just a little too much. The finish was incredibly exciting with the first four teams all finishing up the final hill in a line.
Kate Axford agonisingly close to a silver medal on the final hill.
A proud coach Charlie Dickinson, shoulder to shoulder with his women’s team. Credit: Charlie McCarthy
The Aldershot 'B' team just pipped Leeds for second place, but teams are only allowed one set of medals so the delighted Belgrave team in fourth were awarded the bronze. But, with just 15 seconds from gold and three from silver, the team can't wait for the Cross-Country relay at Mansfield in November.
The 4.3km lap was a little too short for Emily Bradley, but she ran a good leg finishing in just over 16 minutes. Likewise, Mimi Corden-Lloyd who is training for next week's Manchester half. She found the hills and humidity tough, but she still took three places at the end of her leg.
Orna McGinley was a little disappointed with her run, but she has had a stressful week and still managed to overtake eight more teams. By the time Steph Hewitt took over on the last leg, the gaps had become very large. She ran easily the fastest 'B' team leg, passing another three teams, finishing in 29th.
McSweyn makes Belgrave bow
Words by Steve Gardner
The day belonged to the Belles, our two men’s teams roaring Kate Axford up the final hill to bronze.
(l-r) Molloy, McNally, McSweyn, Gebreselassie and Sommerville willing Kate Axford up the final hill.
But it was a great day out for the boys too.
We sent two men’s teams to the race for the first time in years and gave a debut to friend of the club Stewy McSweyn, who has been based in Teddington between May and September for the last few years.
His summer season, which included the 5000m final at the World Championships in Budapest, was extended to include the new World Athletics road running championships in Riga the previous weekend. It meant he was in town for the 6-stage relays for the first time and was keen to replace a solo workout with a taste of the UK’s unrivalled club scene.
He had been registered with EA a fortnight earlier and cleared to run as a “foreign athlete” by UKA “with immediate effect” a few days after that. Unfortunately on the day of the race, another team complained about his inclusion and he was disqualified - along with the rest of the A team - because of a technicality specific to this competition requiring foreign-born athletes to be registered before January 1st of the year of the competition.
That was disappointing, but after consultation with the team it was decided to go ahead as planned.
Back row L-R: Charlie Rogers, Lloyd Kempson, Stewy McSweyn, Steve Gardner, Charlie Wood, Conall Whelan, Sam Gebreselassie. Front row L-R: Fin Dyer, Sam Sommerville, James Wootton, Eoin Molloy, Conall McNally.
None of the boys minded, and memories were made. Stewy was a great addition to the team and to the event, spending much of his time having photos with giddy junior athletes (and their even giddier parents). He even gave away his shoes. We look forward to having him among our ranks again.
‘A’ team
Henry Hart led out the A string under a month after smashing the course record at the 100k Thames Path Ultra. He still brought us home in 35th - a strong position given a lot of clubs field their fastest here.
Henry Hart bring the team home in 35th after a hotly contested first leg.
Newly-married Sam Gebreselassie held us firm in 35th, nothing gained, nothing lost.
Sam Gebreselassie was well below his best - an ankle sprain, a stag do, a wedding, honeymoon and house move will do that - but he still turned out for the club. That’s the spirit that makes this event and this club great.
Sam Sommerville ran a solid third leg and improved our position by four places to 31st.
Sam has been our most consistent performer over the Autumn relays series.
Charlie Rogers has been a superb discovery for us this summer but might have been one race too many over the last few weeks. Nevertheless, only two places bled on leg 4 left us 33rd.
James Wootton has been training with the club for a couple of years now but a combination of injuries and circumstance meant he’d not yet turned out for us in a fixture like this, and he was untested going into a tricky course like Sutton Park. But his was probably our performance of the day. He took five scalps to leave us in 28th going into the final leg.
Dentist James Wootton was more than just a fill-in here.
Over to Stewy, then.
How many places could he eat through from 28th?
His 16:35 run was the second quickest of the day - behind Birchfield’s Omar Ahmed’s 16:34 - and meant we were the 17th team to finish.
‘B’ team
The ‘B’ team placed 39th overall, just four places and 90s off where our ‘A’ team finished a year ago.
Fin Dyer, Eoin Molloy and Conall Whelan all made very good cases for inclusions in future A teams and we’re excited to see how that fitness converts when cross country season kicks off at Richmond Park next weekend.
And there ends the all too brief autumn road road season.
And while we’ll always enjoy cheering on the Belles to silverware - we’ve become rather used to it - we’re keen to emulate them too. If you think you can help us return to the top, it’s time to get in touch.