Welsh and Courtney-Pinn smash PBs at Speedway 10k
Matt Welsh (31) and Brad Courtney-Pinn (69) delighted, knackered.
Belgravians Matt Welsh and Brad Courtney-Pinn made impressive dents in their respective PBs at the increasingly fast Speedway 10k in Chepstow, Wales.
At time of writing we’re still waiting for chip times, but on gun times alone Matt ran 31:28, at least nine seconds quicker than the 31:37 he set at Telford in December. That is likely to improve by 3-4 seconds once chip times are accounted for.
But one of the most remarkable performances of the whole race was Brad’s 31:33 - some 79 seconds quicker than the 32:52 he ran in Telford just over a month ago. All that in middle of some hefty marathon mileage as well.
(And before the sceptics pipe up - in exactly the same shoes as before!)
The pair had stuck to a group grinding out steady 3:08 kms, and Matt says he started to push the pace with 3km to go, expecting to pull away. But every time he came to a bend, there were Brad’s tennis socks in the periphery to remind him: '“I’m still here, coach”.
Brad’s assessment of his winning strategy: “It was a class day. I just followed the Dr (Welsh) for most of the way.”
Both said the conditions were great for racing and the noon start was also a welcome change to the usual early wake-up calls for races like these.
The quick conditions and very competitive pack means that it’s certainly a race the road team will look to send a bigger group to in 2021.
Brad’s attention now turns to the Big Half in March, while Matt is targeting a quick 5k as he joins a strong Belgrave team heading to the Armagh international race in February.
