AFD started the race well – with Josh Grace running his usual classy first leg – bringing us home in 5th, behind teams who wouldn’t feature in the top 5 overall, but crucially ahead of our main title challengers. Joe O’Connell – youngest in the squad at only 18 was next out – and ran really well to move us up to 4th, before Alex Pointon and Joe Morwood kept the momentum going – each finishing their leg in 3rd place.
On leg 5 it must have been a shock to some other teams to see someone who hadn’t worn the red, white and green in over 10 years since the National Six Stage at Clumber Park in 2012, but step forward Stephen Scullion, with our first under 21 minute long leg of the day to take us into the lead. Stephen Blake wasn’t expecting to go out in the lead – but he maintained it to hand over to Sam Eglen with the team still first. Sam ran a really well judged leg, and although we were passed by Highgate, Sam kept us in touch, sending Thomas Renshaw out 17 seconds behind Highgate.
From here we ran faster than Highgate on every leg – with Thomas running the second fastest short leg of the day (14:21) handing over to Ellis Cross just 13 seconds behind Highgate. Ellis quickly took us back into the lead – running the fastest long leg of the day (20:30) and stretching our lead to over a minute. Callum Charleston ran a solid leg and added another 5 seconds to our lead, before handing over to Jack Rowe – who closed off a heavy week’s training before his trip to the USA next week with the third fastest time of the day – 20:43. By now Highgate were two and a half minutes behind us, and Tonbridge another minute back, so it was left to Ricky Harvie to run the fastest short leg of the day (14:13) and secure our victory.
Our B team (half of them who are under 20s) also ran superbly to finish 20th – thus securing us two spots in the National Road Relay at Sutton Park on Saturday 15th April.
We also had an incomplete C team – so important for a club of our stature as it provides reserves for the B team which ensured they qualified for Sutton Park.
Full results are here: https://results.sporthive.com/events/7048245390927329536/races/485336
AFD results – position after each leg in brackets:
A Team – Champions
Joshua Grace 00:21:34 (5)
Joseph O’Connell (U20) 00:14:51 (4)
Alex Pointon 00:21:52 (3)
Joe Morwood 00:14:30 (3)
Stephen Scullion 00:20:56 (1)
Stephen Blake 00:14:42 (1)
Sam Eglen 00:21:51 (2)
Thomas Renshaw 00:14:21 (2)
Ellis Cross 00:20:32 (1)
Callum Charleston 00:14:40 (1)
Jack Rowe 00:20:43 (1)
Ricky Harvie 00:14:13 (1)
B Team – 20th
Alex Matthews 00:23:20 (34)
Luca Vilimanovic (U20) 00:17:07 (38)
Sam Nesbitt (U20) 00:23:31 (36)
Finlay Cross (U20) 00:15:22 (29)
Steven Connor 00:23:20 (30)
Harry Hyde (U20) 00:15:58 (25)
Tom Chandler (U20) 00:22:37 (23)
Jack Boswell 00:16:09 (23)
Liam Stone (U20) 00:22:27 (23)
Simon Cooper (M50) 00:16:00 (21)
George Morris 00:24:05 (20)
Tom Mount 00:16:28 (20)
Incomplete C Team
Daniel Black 00:26:05 (53)
Stuart Boswell (M55) 00:21:34 (56)
Richard Batchelor (M45) 00:26:39 (55)
Mike Boucher (M40) 00:17:43 (55)
The womens race in what is now traditional started 1 hour after the men, thus with multiple laps for rach runner it was very difficult to keep tracks of what was an exciting race.
Thames ValleyHarriers dominated to win by 2 minutes. The scrap for 2nd, 3rd and 4th was tight with Herne Hill Harriers beating AFD by 10 seconds for 2nd and 3rd just ahead of Belgrave Harriers just 2 seconds behind AFD for 4th
Womens A team 3rd
L Gent 17:14 E Moyes 24:58, N McLoughlin 17:46, K Easlea 25:05, H Angell 17:32, K Hughes 17:34