South Of England Road Relays – 21st September 2024 – Race Report
Last weekend, eight of our athletes went to Aldershot where they competed in the South of England Road Relay Championships. Our race report below comes from Elisa Bostock, our Endurance Running Coach.
Four of our U13 female athletes kicked off the day competing in two different teams for their club.
Year 8’s India J on the second leg of the A team, and Alexandra M on the third and final leg. Both ran well under 12 minutes for 3km, with both recording the fourth fastest time for their legs to help the full team finish 2nd place overall. To gain a silver medal at such a championship for their age group at their first attempt is really special.
Year 8’s Ella K kicked off a fast leg for the B team coming in 18th place in just over 12 minutes which is really impressive, passing the baton onto Year 8’s India B who held onto their position determinedly, losing only two places before passing to their third athlete who pulled them back up to 17th overall out of 42 teams, which is also a great achievement at this level.
Our U15 girls including Year 10’s Romilly and Year 9’s Alice, were short of a full team on the day due to illness, losing their third leg runner which was incredibly unlucky. However, it didn’t stop these relentless athletes blasting out their first runs of the season as a duo finishing a noble 20th for Romilly and 32nd for Alice in their legs. This is also Alice’s debut as an under 15.
Year 9’s Digby had a great run as a first year U15, running well under 11 minutes for his 3km and almost a minute quicker than his club team mates. Their team finished around midfield in 36th place.
Year 12’s Angus had an incredible run, coming in 5th in his leg in the U17 men’s age group. Angus’ super strong run, that even surprised himself, was off the back of a long stretch of consistent training and dedicated hard work. Very exciting start to the season! Although their team finished 31st we calculate that Angus was racing at 16:20 5km pace for the 4.8km leg.
The relays mark the end of the summer track season and the start of what will become a busy winter for us as a School in the cross country season.
Whilst many of our athletes will target the National Cross Country Relays in Mansfield in early November, for India J and Alexandra there is now an additional fixture as they head to the National Road Relays in Birmingham on Saturday 5 October. With their silver at Southern’s, this team will be competitive on the national stage!
Huge congratulations to all those who competed at the Southern’s and good luck to the team heading to Birmingham!
