Belles strike bronze at Southern XC Relays
Belgrave Harriers seized the bronze medal on the last leg of the women’s Southern Cross Country Relays, while a much-changed Bels’ team gave a great account of itself at Wormwood Scrubs.
Belles take bronze at the death
Words by Charlie Dickinson
The Belles kept up their fine record of medal winning this Autumn with a rather unexpected bronze in the SEAA 3-Stage Cross-Country relay at Wormwood Scrubs. Luckily, the heavy morning rain had eased off in time for the senior races, and although the path at the far side of the course was quite muddy, the rest of the grassy course remained firm and dry.
As in most relays, the first leg contained the fastest runners from most clubs. At the first takeover, Gemma Kersey from Basildon led from Stragglers and Guildford with the in-form Felicity Harrison doing really well to limit the overall lead to 22 seconds coming in fourth.
Laura Goodson set off on the second leg determined to maintain the Belles position. She ran really well doing just that, handing over to Emma Gordon with the three leading clubs still in sight.
Emma has only recently joined the club whilst studying at Kings College in London. She made her first appearance in the league match the week before when she ran very well, finishing 30th. The leading clubs exchanged places on the final leg, with Emma able to overtake Guildford going through the woods just before surging into the final field to secure the bronze medals.
Illness left the club unable to field a full 'B' team. But Lydia Gallyer-Barnett and Ella-May Hards were still keen to have a run and support the club. They both ran very strong legs in the low 12's which brought the team up to 10th place before the final leg. There were 36 team who finished the race.
Basildon 33:01, 2. Stragglers 33:20, 3. Belgrave 33:37.
A TEAM: Felicity Harrison 10:48 (4), Laura Goodson 11:37 (4), Emma Godon 11:12 (3)
B TEAM: Lydia Gallyer-Barnett 12 :08, Ella-May Hards 12:09 (10)
Under-strength Bels win participation award
Words by Alex Janiaud
This was nowhere near a full-strength Bels team, whose ‘A’ team finished in 12th, just over three and a half minutes outside the medals.
Credit must still go to the boys who showed up for the club. Having roared the Belles on to bronze, Jonny Neville kicked things off with a powerful run to 12th before handing over to Alex Janiaud, who held the team’s position despite exchanging places with the teams around him on his leg.
Tom Gardner put in a solid cross country debut for Belgrave before handing over to Conall McNally, who edged Jonny out for our fastest leg of the day.
Our ‘B’ side, meanwhile, finished 26th. Sam Davis and Val Rigori put in great efforts, narrowly missing out on dipping below 14 minute legs, while credit also goes to Robert Norville and Adam Justice for their runs.
This was an enjoyable day out for the lads, who with bigger guns in the team could scale the standings in future editions of this race.
A TEAM: Jonny Neville 12:48 (12), Alex Janiaud 13:18 (12), Tom Gardner 14:11 (15), Conall McNally 12:43 (12)
B TEAM: Sam Davis 14:06 (27), Robert Norville 16:03 (35), Adam Justice 14:29 (26), Valentin Rigori 14:02 (24)
Credit: Liviu Andrei Enache