Our Junior teams competed for the club on Saturday in the National Road Relays, held just down the road at Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield. The course was the same as that used two weeks ago where many of the juniors competed, so as well as being able to test themselves against the very best in the country they could also try and improve on their own times despite cooler/windier conditions. All the junior races were held over the undulating 3.88km loop.
In the U/13 Girls we had Mathilde Wakefield on first leg, Beatrice Wakefield on second and Lucy Brownsword on third. Mathilde ran 19:39 (a 21 second improvement), Beatrice ran 18:33 and an under the weather Lucy ran 19:54. The girls ran really well to finish in 65th position.
In the U/13 Boys we had Jamie Betteley running first, Joseph Stevens on second and Charlie Ranford on third leg. Jamie ran 16:31, Joseph ran 16:38 and Charlie 17:24 (knocking 43 seconds of his previous time). The boys finished in 63rd position.
In the U/15 Girls we had a great turnout and again fielded 7 athletes. In one team we had Misha Twardochleb (16:21) Nadine Tomlinson (16:27 – 24 seconds faster) and Scarlett Cotton (17:29). That team finished in 49th position. The second team was Jessica Copeland (17:17), Lily Stevens (20:36 – 56 seconds quicker) and Poppy Ranford (19:08 – 64 seconds quicker). That team finished in 66th position. Our other athlete was Zara Hadden who ran 19:34, but unfortunately didn’t have any more team mates due to illness/injury.
In the U/15 Boys we had just Louis Wakefield and Elliot Smith competing again, so with no team position available to them they were both just looking to improve their individual times – which they both did. Louis ran 14:40 an improvement of 28 seconds, whilst Elliot ran 14:33 which was also an improvement of 18 seconds. When they finished the second leg the boys team were in 61st position.
In the U/17 Girls race we had just two athletes competing, with Elizabeth Clarkson and Alex Oakley both having competed at the midlands race the weeks prior they were both looking to run faster. Lizzie ran 15:13 and Alex 17:04 so both just failed to go quicker but both had strong runs and were pleased with their performances. They were in 29th position when they finished.
In the U/17 men we had Jacob Droogmans, Jordan Nixon and Lewis Nagington competing in that order. Jacob ran 13:42 on leg 1, Jordan ran 13:26 on leg 2 and Lewis ran 13:01 (9 seconds quicker) on the final leg. The team finished in 36th position. Their time of 40:09 was just 2 seconds slower than that they previously ran which really underlines the consistency of the team.
The Senior Ladies team also took part and the report of that race can be found HERE.
Well done to all our juniors that competed for the club at this fixture, there is a change of surface again next time out with the area xc relays taking place on Saturday 21st October.
