Chiltern Harriers entered three young athletes' teams, U13 Boys, U15 Girls and U15 Boys, to take part in this high standard and exciting early season meeting. The weather was fine and the Army arena provided excellent road race courses for both spectators and athletes. All 4 members of the U13 boy's team and two members of the U15 boy's team were taking part in a major road relay event for the first time. All three teams took part in races with each runner completing a 2997 metre circuit.
The U13 Boys team of four produced the best team performance finishing 4th overall. Sonny Harvey ran the very competitive first leg and placed the team in a strong 8th position when recording the 16th fastest time of the race 11 mins 19 secs. Oliver Church had a great run on the 2nd leg when recording the 13th fastest time of 11 mins 11 secs to move the team up to 6th place. A strong run by Michael Palfreeman on the 3rd leg moved the team up to 4th place as he recorded a time of 11 mins 48 secs. Howard Mears took over on the anchor leg just a few seconds in front the 4th leg runner from Wells City to continue a battle between the two teams, which had been close since the first leg. He ran an excellent race and with his opponent breathing down his neck as he rounded the final turn to run the 150 metres slightly up hill to the finish he held 4th place by 1 second recording an individual time of 11 mins 32 secs.
The U15 Boys finished a creditable 11th out of 37 complete teams of 4 with a further 15 teams starting the event but not completing the race. Alex Shelley took on the first leg and ran very well until a tightening calf muscle forced him to run the final 1k more cautiously and he slipped back from 6th position to finish in 12th place. He recorded a time of 10 mins 14 secs, which proved to be 24th fastest time overall out of 180 finishers. A very good run on the 2nd leg by Nick Lingley improved the team's position to an excellent 5th place as he recorded the 21st fastest time of 10 mins 11 secs. Will Hayter running in his first major road relay event took over on the 3rd leg with 5 runners behind him in close order. Undaunted he battled his way round overtaking the 4th place runner before losing a place to one of the following competitors. He retained his 5th place and recorded a very good time of 10 mins 39 secs. First year Daniel Loach, also making his debut in this type of event, took over on the final leg with 4 four very good runners right on his tail and another two who would put him under pressure in the later stage of his run. He ran well to finish in 11th position and record a time of 11 mins 27 secs.
The U15 Girls team, all first year's in the age group, consisted of Bex Myers, Jenny Hayward and Rachel Griffiths. They had competed over the shorter U13 girl's course the year before when finishing a very creditable 11th position. On this occasion a hip problem suffered by Bex Myers in warm-up just before she was about to run the first leg disrupted plans and affected the race completely for all three girls. Jenny, who was not ready to race at that point had to take on the first leg and not surprisingly didn't perform very well finishing towards the back of the field. Rachel ran the second leg but with long gaps between runners was not inspired to produce her normal run. Then Bex completed the final leg running very carefully to bring the team home in 48th place out of the 68 teams that began the race.
Gary Howells
Coach/ Team Manager
Chiltern Harriers AC