Another very good day at Sutton Coldfield for this years National 6 & 4 Stage Road Relays alongside the Junior Road Relays was enjoyed by Blackburn Harriers as 2 x U15 Girls teams, 2 x U17 Men’s teams, 1 senior womens team and one senior mens team took part on a day covered in sunshine and very good competition. (All Photos on Blackburn Harriers Facebook Page – HERE)
The Harriers U15 Gilrs teams were first off at mid day with Millie Jordan leading the first team out and coming home in 15th place running 14.30 followed by team mates Charlotte Smith on the second leg running 15.10, handing over to Agatha Taylor on the last leg who ran 14. 59 – the team finishing 17th overall. Our second team was one athlete short which meant that Emma Robertshaw took on the first leg running 15.31 with team mate Lottie Hesketh running 15.34 on the second leg.
L-R Charlotte Smith – Agatha Taylor – Lottie Hesketh – Emma Robertshaw – Millie Jordan
Two teams in the U17 Men’s Relays – Oliver Gill, Sam Aspey and Jack Wood in the first team – Matthew Smith, Ethan Cutler and Henry Ward in the second team. Oliver ran the opening leg for the first team, running from the back of the start and pulling through to come home in 16th spot running 12.09 before handing over to Sam on the second leg who pulled back three places in placing 13th in a time of 12.20 who in turn, handed over to Jack Wood on the final leg – Jack picking off another five pl;aces to bring the team home to 8th place overall with a time of 12. 31 – our highest team finish of the day. The second team came home in 37th position – Matthew leading off with a time of 13.17 in 54th and backed up by team mates Ethan (12.47) on the second leg who pulled back 8 places before Henry – also running 12.47 – took back another 9 places to bring the lads home in 37th.
L-R Matthew Smith – Henry Ward – Sam Aspey – Ethan Cutler – Oliver Gill – Jack Wood
One of the runs of the day came in the Senior Women’s race which saw Isabel Holt lead the team out on the first leg, coming home in 9th spot with a time of 14.31 – just three seconds off the ten fastest legs of the day. Evie Taylor was next, on the second leg running 16.00 to hand over to Abigail McAndrew in 18th spot. Abigail pulled back 4 places with a time of 15.12 before passing on to Anna Greenwood on the final leg – Anna running 17.01 to bring the team home in 22nd place overall. Rob Warner-Judd got the senior mens team off to a good start on leg 1, running 17.41 in 19th spot before handing over to Ben Makin on the second leg, Ben running 18.56. Ben handed over to Matt Ramsden who pulled back 16 places and ran the second fastest time on leg 3 of 17.24 – the fastest 17.23 by Cambridge athlete Thomas Keen (17.23). On leg 4 Ross Harrison had another fine run in moving the team up to 15th, taking another 5 places back with a time of 18.00. Paul Bradshaw took leg 5 running 20.04 before passing on to Chris Davies on the final leg who brought the team home in 36th position with a time of 20.38.
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Over in America David Holman was racing again over cross country. After his initial warm up race two weeks ago, he was out again at the Paul Short Invite race 10k in Pennsylvania where he place 9th overall and 4th counter for Wingate running a time of 24.37 which was well over a minute faster than his pevious race. David told the Club afterwards that he “had such a good race and felt so stong throughout and really happy with the result“.
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A trio of Blackburn Harriers were out at the Chester Marathon on Sunday October 6th – V40 Ben Fish, V45 Vikki Robertshaw and Charlotte Atkinson. Over six thousand runners finished the race which was won by Ashford AC athlete Marshall Smith in 2hr 16.59. Ben came home in a time of 2hr 31.23, was 19th overall, 3rd V40 and speaking to us afterwards he said “it was a tough day at the office. Wasn’t feeling great 10 miles in and was hanging on in the top 10 until about 23rd mile. Wheels really came off then.” Vikki was making her debut over the marathon and was nervous leading up to it during triaining – however – she ran really well setting a time of 3hr 17.20 – was 49th woman overall and 10th V45 and was delighted with her run telling us afterwards “Absolutely loved my first marathon and I’m so pleased with my time. Big thank you to Katie Buckingham for pacing me at the end and to George Woodburn for his coaching“. Charlotte ran 3hr 38.21 and was 148th in the Women’s race overall and 50th in her age group (18-34).
Ben Fish
Vikki Robertshaw
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