Young Athletes perform well at National Road Relays

14 Young Athletes from our U15 and U17 squads made the trip up to Sutton Coldfield on Saturday for the English National Road Relays, foggy and cold on the way up, the weather was perfect on arrival, if anything a little too warm.

The course was a 3.88 km road circuit around Sutton Park, which starts with a punishing 600m for 30m elevation gain, then a fairly flat 1.3k to the Jamboree Stone right hand hairpin followed by a nice 1k coming down 20m or so and then , just when you think you’re enjoying yourself, there’s another short but very steep hill. Once up and over that, the crowds who have ran over from the nearby start line are shouting that you have 400 to go, most of which is downhill again before turning hard right again for the final 100m sprint up the hill to the finish. First up for the youth sections were our under 15 Boys, Nate Harding was chosen for the first leg knowing his experience would be needed at the start, and he ran very well covering the distance in 14.08, handing over to Patrick Hayden running as a bottom year in his first national competition with strong, steady 16.16, handing over to Gregor Samson making a couple of places back for his team for 15.08, the lads finishing 42nd. A really great effort by these boys.

Next the under 15 Girls, Abigail Reid volunteered for the difficult first leg, a job for which one has to have their wits about them, and after a pile up in the U13 boys race, it happened again and Abigail was quick to avoid trouble, hurdling a fallen starter, she ran a brilliant first leg in 14.08, coming in 7th. Our second athlete was Emily Caton who has only just come back from a long break with injury, showed her trademark determination finishing in very creditable 15.42 holding 11th place before passing to Molly Sherrin who showed another amazing performance bringing the team home with a fantastic 12th place.

Our U17 Men were next. We sent 7 young men up with 2 complete teams and one athlete who has just joined the club but nevertheless wanted to come along and show us what he is made of, he elected to run a single leg on his own. On the first leg toeing the line were Danny Raymond our England International, happier with 800m on the track however in fine form and raring to go , along with Evan Johnson leading the B string and Alfie Ward, new to the club, never having run more than 800m but wanting to try the longer distance as C. At then end of the first leg we had Danny in the 7th with an amazing 11.56, seen at the 1km marker in about 20th, not wishing to blow out on the first hill he came past the cheering crowds at 400m to go in 11th before showing the speed that won him the English Schools 800m taking 4 places in the final sprint up the hill. Evan came through in 31st with a very good 12.51 and Alfie in his first outing ran 13.51 a time which he should be very pleased with, coming in 55th. Waiting for the 2nd leg runners we were amazed an overjoyed to see Max Richards at the 400m to go mark in 5th place , showing no sign of the injury that has caused him to take some time out this summer, he came through in a fantastic 12.30 holding 5th. Our B string 2nd athlete Reuben Fabian took over from Evan gaining 3 places on his leg one of which was a magnificent final sprint against a Chiltern Athlete, coming in at 13.06. After seeing his team mate come through in 5th Jimmy Geller told us later he knew the pressure was on to give his best performance, and after having had to take s so much time through injury it would be an uphill struggle, he did however run an amazing 12.09, taking a place to bring the A string home in 4th. Our last man home was Nathan Wright another U17 man who had taken a long time out, used all of his considerable race experience to bring the B string home in 29th for 13.32, a fantastic performance given his time out. Credit also ought to be given to his father Mark who has put so much effort in to coaching these young men and can now see the fruits of his labour.

Finally our last performance was by Kezia Beeton, who completely unfazed by the lack of available team mates should be praised by travelling up to Birmingham as a sole under 17 woman and ran a fine 15.20 for 30th in the first leg. A very happy John Stow was seen rubbing his hands and grinning from ear to ear thinking about Saturdays Met League.