Solid showing at National 6/4-stage
Belgrave’s women came 16th and the men came 35th at a high quality day of racing at Sutton Park.
Women
On leg 1, Sarah Astin led off for the 'A' team coming home in 3rd place after a blistering run, the 7th fastest of the whole day. Sarah has begun to build up her training again after a few weeks taking it relatively easy after her tremendous summer. The ever-reliable Fiona Maddocks took the first leg for the 'B' team, sensibly not getting caught up with the frenetic pace of the leaders.
Sarah Astin on the final hill.
It was never going to be easy taking over from Sarah on the second leg, but Orna McGinley managed to hold off the pursuers until the last kilometre and although she was passed by five runners, finished strongly. Natalie Beadle had perhaps her best ever road relay race for the 'B' team, gaining 14 places for her team. Natalie likes to do fell races in her home in the Lake District and her strength on the hills obviously showed.
Orna McGinley rounds the final bend.
Olivia Papaioannou has been working very hard to regain her fitness and the excellent form she had before her serious accident in the early summer. Liv found the race very tough but got round without losing too many places. Sarah Riceman prefers longer distances but liked the tough hilly course and had strong run gaining another seven places for the 'B' team.
Liv Papaioannou working hard on leg 3.
Anna Sharp has recently joined the club having moved to London to work in a hospital. She is an excellent acquisition and ran the second fastest Belles time of the day on the somewhat lonely last leg. Clemmie Cooper, another new member, completed the race for the 'B' team. Clemmie showed a lot of potential having previously competed in Modern Pentathlon.
Results
'A' team, 16th 62;04. Sarah Astin 14:12 (3), Orna McGinley 15:54 (9), Olivia Papaioannou 16:21 (15), Anna Sharp 15:37 (16).
'B' Team, 36th, 67:19. Fiona Maddocks 17:20 (59), Natalie beadle 16:10 (45), Sarah Riceman 16:42 (38), Clemmie Cooper 17:07 (36).
Individual times
A. Quirk (Bracknell) 13:38, 2. A. Donnelly (Lincoln) 14:00, 3. J. Judd (Blackburn) 14:02, ...... 7. S. Astin 14:12.
Men
l-r: Conall McNally, Neil Wilson, Jonny Neville, Sam Gebreselassie, Steve Gardner, Jonny Scott
With only Sam Gebreselassie of our superstars available for this one and no chance of a medal, there was a brief “should we scratch this?” discussion but it quickly became clear that six solid boys were keen for a hitout.
Perfect running conditions and a stacked field greeted us at Sutton Park and soon it was over to TM / driver / occasional runner Steve Gardner to brave the first leg scramble.
Steve in amongst it on the first leg. His was our second quickest of the day but only good enough for 50th on the leg 1, such was the depth.
Sam Gebreselassie had been on antibiotics all week and “just didn’t feel like my body would let me run fast.” His time was 40 seconds down on a year ago but still bought us seven positions on leg 2.
Leg 3: Neil Wilson enjoyed his run but was disappointed to run a fraction slower than last year. He still managed to improve us from 43rd to 41st.
A solid run from Jonny Scott, “lacking sharpness” or so he told us, gained us a further three places. Having grown up just round the corner in Solihull, Jonny used his knowledge of the course well. With our photographers on a cooldown/warmup, his run went uncaptured but we did catch him a few seconds after crossing the line for a debrief:
Jonny Neville felt good beforehand but “couldn’t quite get the legs motoring on the downhills”. Here he is relishing the final uphill of the course, and no doubt eager for cross country season to begin. His leg 5 run improved us by one place to 37th.
Conal McNally described his anchor leg as “19 minutes in hell, never got comfortable.” He was still 15 seconds faster than last year and managed and brought us home in 35th overall. Decent.
Belgrave senior men: Steve Gardner 18:28, Sam Gebreselassie 18:05, Neil Wilson 19:04, Jonny Scott 18:51, Jonny Neville 19:01, Conall McNally 18:57.
Our total time was 14 seconds quicker than the same race last year but we finished 5 places worse off than our 30th in 2021.