English National Relays: Senior Men 15th

Woodford fielded a senior team at the English Cross Country Relays, at Berry Hill Park, Mansfield, for the first time in several years on 31st October. Superb runs from the quartet of Ben Potrykus, Oliver Bushdari, Nathan Wright, and Joseph Owen took the team to 15th place in the tight 4 x 5km competition, which was won by Tonbridge from Western Tempo, with Cambridge & Coleridge third.

Ben put the team on the map by 'winning' the leg 1 race in 14:36, holding off Tonbridge's Jack Higgins and Leeds City's Jenson Connell by 2 and 3 seconds respectively. Only two runners bettered Ben's leg time all day, Tonbridge's Ted Higgins who ran 14:31, and Western Tempo's Jacob Cann, who recorded 0.177 seconds quicker to the thousandth, though off a rolling start.

Oliver next ran 15:52 to bring the team in 8th, squeaking in ahead of Bedford and County to set off a race-within-a-race that would continue all afternoon.

Oliver handed over to Nathan, who ran a slightly quicker 15:45 to come in 9th, just behind former National champion Calum Johnson of Gateshead, and putting a couple of places into Bedford.

Joseph followed up with 16:07 to finish in 15th, 7 seconds behind Bedford and just 18 seconds behind Highgate who were 11th, to underline the closeness of the competition.

Ben will contest the Scottish short-course championship next week on 7th November, while the larger squad are back in action at the second Met League at Trent Park on the 14th.