Great start to the Autumn Winter Season in the Road and Cross Country Relays

South of England (SEAA) Road Relays, Aldershot, Saturday September 21^st 2024

The SEAA Road relays are always a highlight of the autumn/winter season giving an opportunity to all of our athletes to run as part of a relay team with 3 per team for the U13 to U17 age groups, teams of 4 for the senior women and teams of 6 for the senior men. Following the success of the national cross-country championships the week before (see our cross country report here), hopes were high, but with everyone back to racing in their summer track age groups and a number of our runners departing for university, we knew that winning medals would be a tough challenge.

Despite Joe Brooker and Thomas Fay now going up to the U15 age group, our U13 Boys’ team of Ted Bainbridge, Ben Welch and AJ Evans continued their success by coming a fantastic 2^nd behind Hercules Wimbledon AC. In addition, AJ ran the 3^rd fastest time of the day with 10:14. Our B team of Fraser Grehan, Frankie Fraser and Ethan Barry were 22^nd and Leo Spencer and Charlie Orywal-Sykes ran legs 1 and 2 for the C team.

Our U15 Girls were the next medallists with Zoe Allan, Tara Ferguson and national Kara Gorman coming 3^rd behind Chelmsford and Brentwood Beagles. Kara ran the 3^rd fastest time of the day with 10:05. Our B team of Chloe Bullock, Riona Street and Quinn Bookless came 18^th, Our C team of Zlata Osipova              , Olivia Watson and Roxanna Heffer were 23^rd and our D team of Freya Wouters, Ellouise James and Nihaal Rasheed were 47^th.

We had 2 teams in the U13 Girls’ race with Megan Bond, Mia Lennox-Imbastari and Lyra Banham finishing 9^th and Betty Kellerman and April Dodson running 2 of the 3 legs for the B team.

Joe Brooker, Evan McGrail and Thomas Fay finished 16^th in the U15 Boys’ race with Mark Bourne, Euan Totays and Archie Charles coming in 50^th and Toby Hirst, Harry Welch and Tymon Zygmuntowicz just behind in 51^st.

The entered 3 teams in the U17 Men’s race. Our best finishers were the A team in 16^th place. Sarim Toqeer ran a great 1^st leg to come in 8^th, passing on to Isaac Collier with Sam Thuo bringing the team home in 16^th. Our B team of Teddy Silvey, Henry Keen and Fabien Mormech were 49^th while Toby Holmes and Ben Young ran for an incomplete C team.

Sarim Toqeer (A344) U17Men SEAA Road Relays 2024. Photo Mark Hookway

With Marnie Fieldsend finishing leg 1 in 1^st place, our U17 Women’s A team with Luhanne Smith on leg 2 and Yasmin Grant on leg 3, fought hard to stay in the medal positions but finally finished in an agonising 4^th. Ana Passos, Grace Colley and Chloe Bavazzano were 18^th.

Our Senior Women’s A team which included 3 U20 runners (Jaq Heller, Ella Davey and Eva Bartlett) with no separate race for them at the road relays) and Alex Barbour running the anchor leg, finished just outside the top 10 in 11^th place. Our B team of Simran Dhillon, Aashni Manek, Katie Clutterbuck and Jenna Bailey were 37^th.

The club’s Senior Men’s team of Alex Tovey, Frank McGrath, Ben Reynolds, William Goddard, Ross Van-Heerde and Matt Clutterbuck (which also included 3 U20 men), had a goal of finishing within the top 25 positions to qualify them for a spot in the upcoming National Road Relays. They did this in style, coming in 21^st, comfortably ahead of the 25^th qualifying position.

Running for the B team, Callum Welch, Dylan Bavazzano, Tom Baines, Luke Hynes, Sam Colley and Sohan Nath were 58^th.          

Full SEAA Road Relays 2024 results are available here.

English Road Running Association(ERRA) National Road Relays Sutton Park, Saturday 5th October 2024

The next big race after the Southern Road Relays is always the National Road Relays which are traditionally held in Sutton Park in the West Midlands. The 2024 event took place on Saturday 5th October with lovely sunny weather and temperatures up to 17 degrees C.

As in the SEAA Road Relays, the U13s to U17s race over 3 legs with the Senior Women running 4 legs and the Senior Men running 6 legs. The 1st half of the course up to the famous Jamboree Stone always proves to be a test for everyone, regardless of their age group or distance run.

The U13 Boys’ race was nail-biting to watch with AJ Evans falling at the start of leg 1 but managing to come in 2^nd, just 1 second behind Wolverhampton and Bilston AC. On the 2^nd leg, Ben Welch ran well to come in 3^rd, just 3 seconds behind new leaders Hercules Wimbledon. Ted Bainbridge ran a fantastic leg, overtaking the runners from Liverpool Harriers and Hercules Wimbledon to bring the WSEH team home in 1^st place by 6 seconds.

Ted was rewarded with the fastest lap of the day with 13:12 and AJ, despite his fall at the start of leg 1, just 1 second behind Ted in 3^rd place with 13:13. Our B team of Frankie Fraser, Fraser Grehan and Ethan Barry were 30^th.

The club’s 2^nd medal of the day came in the U15 Girls’ race with Kara Gorman, Tara Ferguson and Zoe Allan battling it out with Aldershot, Farnham & District and Chelmsford for the medals, finally taking a well-deserved bronze. In addition, Kara Gorman’s time of 13:10 was the fastest leg of the day with Tara Ferguson’s 13:20 the 6^th fastest.

The B team of Chloe Bullock, Riona Street and Quinn Bookless finished 25^th.

Our U13 Girls team of Lyra Banham, Megan Bond and April Dodson were 28^th. In the U15 Boys’ race, the A team of Evan Mcgrail, Joe Brooker and Thomas Fay came in 20^th with the B team of Tymon Zygmuntowi, Archie Charles and Euan Totays 47^th.

The U17 Women’s team got off to a fantastic start, with Marnie Fieldsend coming in 1^st in a time of 13:18 which ended up being the 4^th fastest of the day. Yasmin Grant and Luhane Smith also ran well to bring the team home in 7^th. The B team of Grace Colley, Ana Passos and Chloe Bavazzano were not far behind in 15^th.

Sarim Toqeer, Sam Thuo and Isaac Collier were 16^th out of nearly 70 teams in the U17 Men’s race

Our Senior Women’s team of Rachel Clutterbuck, Alex Barbour, Eva Bartlett and Jemima Ridley were an excellent 15^th. The B team of Ella Davey, Jaq Heller, Lily Rolfe and Aashni Manek also ran well to finish in 34^th.

After qualifying 21^st in the SEAA road relays in September, our Senior Men’s team represented by Alex Tovey, Frank Mcgrath, Ben Reynolds, Matt Clutterbuck, Ross van Heerde and Dylan Bavazzano came a respectable 42^nd.

Full ERRA National Road Relay 2024 results are available here.

South of England Cross Country Relays, Wormwood Scrubs, 19^th October 2024

The SEAA Cross Country Relays are a great day out for all of our cross country runners from U13 upwards with everyone getting a chance to compete as part of a relay team. Despite the very rainy start to the day, conditions improved by the time racing started and the club enjoyed some fantastic results with medals in 4 of the 8 races and the senior men missing out on 3^rd place by just 2 seconds.

Our U20 women started the day in fine style, with the team of Ella Davey, Eva Bartlett and Jaq Heller winning by over 2 minutes. Aashni Manek came in 5^th on leg 1 for an incomplete B team.  

Another gold medal was won by the U13 Boys, with Ted Bainbridge, Benjamin Welch and AJ Evans winning by over 30 seconds. Our B team of Frankie Fraser, Charlie Orywal-Sykes and Austin Coupar finished 19^th and Ethan Barry and Finnlay Annetts ran legs 1 and 2 for the C team.

SEAA U13 Boys Cross Country Relay Champions Ben Welch, AJ Evans and Ted Bainbridge

A close-fought U15 Girls race saw Tara Ferguson, Zoe Allan and Kara Gorman finish in 2^nd place just behind Chelmsford AC. Our B team of Riona Street, Quinn Bookless and Zlata Osipova finished 10^th and Olivia Watson, Roxy Heffer and Maia Santavirta were 13^th.

Medal-winning ways continued in the U17 Girls relay where our team of Grace Colley, Luhanne Smith and Marnie Fieldsend were bronze medallists with our B team of Ana Passos, Yasmin Grant and Stephanie Massie in 6^th. Chloe Bavazzano and Honey Fitzgerald ran legs 1 and 2 for an incomplete C team.

Bronze medal for our U17 Women, Marnie Fieldsend, Luhanne Smith and Grace Colley at the SEAA Cross Country Relays

Our U17 Men’s team of Sam Thuo and Sarim Toqeer were in 4^th place after legs 1 and 2 with Sarim running the fastest time on his leg, but sadly an injury to our runner on leg 3 meant that they did not finish a team. Fabien Mormech, Toby Holmes and Ben Young were 20^th for the B team and Miko Santavirta ran the 1^st leg for our C team.

Sam Colley (U20 Men) and Sam Thuo (U17 Men) SEAA Cross Country Relays

The U20 Men’s team of Sam Colley, Callum Welch and Sohan Nath finished in 7^th.

Megan Bond, Lyra Banham and April Dodson finished 8^th in the U13 Girls’ race with the B team of Simone Plewman, Betty Kellerman and Yashini Thirakaluthy finishing 19^th.

Lily Rolfe was our only representative in the Senior Women’s race, coming in 14^th on the 1^st leg.

A last minute drop-out from our Senior Men’s A team led to a late swap around of runners. Jack Campbell came in 13^th on leg 1 with Dan Brookling racing through the field to move the defending champions up to 3^rd. On leg 3 Tom Bains finished 5^th with Alex Gladley running the fastest time on leg 4 to bring the team within 2 seconds of 3^rd place in an agonising 4^th. Will Goddard came in 10^th on the 1^st leg for an incomplete B team.

Full SEAA Cross Country Relay 2024 results can be found here.

National Cross Country Relays Mansfield, Saturday 2^nd November 2024

The English National Cross Country Relays are traditionally held over the rolling hills, short sections of muddy paths and fast, flat smooth surfaces of Berry Park Mansfield. Our U20 Women got the day off to a great start by taking the bronze medals. Jemima Ridley ran the 1^st leg, coming in 3^rd in a time of 8:37 with Eva Bartlett maintaining that position on the 2^nd leg with 8:48. Although Rachel Clutterbuck came in 4^th on the 3^rd leg with 09:00, the team took the bronze medals because the winning team from Loughborough University was made up of runners from several different clubs so did not count in the official results.

3rd for our A team of Eva Bartlett, Jemima Ridley and Rachel Clutterbuck U20 Women’s race at the English Cross Country Relays

Our B team also had great runs to come 6^th with Ella Davey 11^th on leg 1 in 08:57, Jaq Heller moving up to 5^th in 08:51 and Charlotte Dewar doing her longest race for a while, coming in 6^th in 09:13.

The U15 Girls team of Kara Gorman, Zoe Allan and Tara Ferguson all ran within 11 seconds of each with to place a brilliant 3^rd, only 3 seconds behind 2^nd placed Cheltenham. Kara led home the race on leg 1 recording 7:23 followed by Zoe who maintained 1^st place with 7:34 and Tara Ferguson our last leg runner ran 7:32 to bring the team in 3^rd.

Our B team of Riona Street, Roxy Heffer and Zlata Osipova finished 34^th.

Our U17 Women all had excellent runs to come so close to the medals in 4^th place. Marnie Fieldssend started by finishing 4^th in 08:55, with Grace Colley in 09:17 coming in 6^th and Yasmin Grant moving back up to finish 4^th in 09:32. Ana Passos and Steph Massie ran legs 1 and 2 for the B team.

Our U13 Boys, racing without National Road Relays fastest lap runner Ted Bainbridge who was away, still managed to come a fine 10^th. AJ Evans finished 8^th on leg 1 on 07:27, followed by Frankie Fraser in 08:06 finishing 10^th and Fraser Crehan maintaining that position in 08:27.

The U20 men’s team finished in 14^th place. They were led off by Frank McGrath, back in the UK after a year in the USA coming in 13^th position in 09:01. Frank was followed by George Thomas in his 1^st race for the club since starting at Loughborough University in October coming in 9^th in 09:18. Sam Colley on his way back after having to take a significant amount of time out in the summer due to injury, showed he is on the way back running 09:40 to bring the team home in 14^th position.

Our U13 Girls team of Lyra Banham, Mia Lennox-Imbastari and Betty Kellerman finished 19^th.

Our U15 Boys teams were 21^st (Evan McGrail, Thomas Fay and Joe Brooker) and 65^th (Mark Bourne, Tymon Zygmuntowicz and Toby Hirst).

An excellent 1^st leg by Alex Barbour brought our Senior Woman’s team in in 8^th place, just a few seconds off the lead. With Natalie Thompson on the 2^nd leg and Katie Clutterbuck on the 3^rd leg the team finished in they finished 17^th position.

Natalie Thompson (1026) National Cross Country Relays 2024, photo Mark Hookway.

The biggest field of the day (163 teams) came in the senior men’s race. Our team featured students Ross Van Heerde and Jack Campbell, who were joined by Ben Reynolds and Matthew Clutterbuck. After a steady start by Ross, the team worked their way up to 40^th position at the end of the race.

Ross van Heerde National Cross Country Relays 2024. Photo Mark Hookway

Full National Cross Country Relays 2024 results are available here.

Read part 1 of our 2024 Cross Country Report.