News from South London Harriers
September 29th, 2007: South of England Relays Men: Vet 50 “Gold” Jason “Fastest Vet”
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Read Peter’s report below:
Gold Vet 50 Team 
The V50s stole the show today at Rushmoor Arena, coming from behind to take gold. Ian Kitching was a reluctant first legger, as some other team members were a bit late arriving. He started well, but by halfway was struggling, though he came through strongly on his second lap, to finish around fourth in the category.
Glenn Quarton took over and immediately made an impact on those ahead, taking the team up to second. The tide was definitely turning our way, as our strongest runner, Ray Marriott, was next up. He went on to run the second fastest time for an V50, and give the club a lead of well over a minute as he handed over to Barry Attwell for the glory leg.
But which Barry would show up today? He was concerned about twinges in his leg, but there again, he always is. He was running well enough but behind him the second club (Oxford?) were closing him down at the proverbial rate of knots. As Barry came into the amphitheatre second time his lead was reduced to 25 seconds and closing. Into the final straight and it was a sprint for the line, Barry holding on by just three seconds.
The V40s came close to also picking up a medal, if only. We had two complete teams at this category, and Andy Collins represented the ‘As’ and new cross-country captain, Dave Baker, led off for the ‘Bs’. Andy went off fastest but on the second lap, Dave closed him down and went past, beating him by eight seconds! Is our new captain too modest about his ability?
Second leg, and Mike Airey set off in pursuit of an ‘unknown’ in terms of road relays for the B team. It was the vets silver medallist in the steeplechase world champs running for SLH, and Andy Tindall wanted to prove something. He hadn’t been entered, so wasn’t eligible for the A team, but he sure can run. Mike Airey powered through, running over 30 seconds quicker than Dave had on the first leg, but Andy was inspired. He beat Mike’s time by over a minute, taking the B team up to fourth and with a lead of nearly 75 seconds over ‘the better team’.
Third leg would prove it, though. Julian, son of Bob Gevers, set off strongly, but for the ‘As’ was Jason Simpson on a mission. He took over in eleventh, but powered through, passing Julian relatively quickly, and got the team up to third, whilst running the fastest time of the day.
So, Chris Phelan took over. Could he hold on to this position, or even possibly improve? Sadly, it was not to be. He was caught and we slipped to fourth. Meanwhile, the B team was still in eighth place overall when Julian handed over to last man, Peter Emery. Quite clearly in company to which he was not used or able to rub shoulders, nine places were lost overall, though two of these were two V50 teams.
The V60s were never in contention for a medal against some very high quality opposition. Dave Newlands led off, handing over to a fast Graham Bradbury, who has been injured. Third leg was Terry Ward, still not fully fit, with Ken Lee bringing the team home. They finished out of the medals and 58th overall in the combined race.
Times:
1st Leg:
20th Dave Baker 21m 29s
22nd Andy Collins 21m 37s
28th Ian Kitching 22m 00s
64th Dave Newlands 25m 29s
2nd Leg:
4th Andy Tyndall 19m 45s
11th Mike Airey 20m 51s
16th Glenn Quarton 21m 26s
63rd Graham Bradbury 23m 35s
3rd Leg:
3rd Jason Simpson 18m 53s
8th Julian Gevers 22m 00s
10th Ray Marriott 20m 23s
62nd Terry Ward 32m 56s
4th Leg:
4th Chris Phelan 20m 54s
10th Barry Attwell 21m 50s
17th Peter Emery 24m 44s
58th Ken Lee 25m 17s
Men’s Senior team finished 64 in a time of 2:17:43. No report available at present. Individual results below:
Alex Halpin 22:46
Mark Farmer 21:37
Colin Young 24:53
Matt Chapman 20:49
Simon Rosser 23:28
Antonio Martins 24:10
Posted in Road Running
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