Well done to the 38 Westbury Harriers (12 men, 8 women, 9 girls and 9 boys) who ran in a total of 11 teams in the Midland Relays at Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield on Saturday.
There were some excellent team and individual performances, and all those in Westbury vests ran their hearts out on a tricky and undulating course, against some very high quality competition.
From Women’s Team Manager Tamsin:
“A thrilling day at the Midland 4 stage road relays for the senior ladies. Our A team pulled out a fantastic performance to finish 4th, only 7 seconds off a bronze medal. This is the best position the team has finished since I have been the team manager (which is a long time!). It was the largest ladies field in years with 100 complete teams which makes the runs of Hannah Hobbs – 14.49 clocking the 2nd fastest of the day – and Floren Villanueva-Scrafton 15.02, 5th fastest time of the day – even more super impressive.
Our B team were 47th and 9th B team. Strong first leg by Kirstie and great to see Sarah and Linda back in action. Well done ladies.
A team: Floren Villanueva-Scrafton 15.02, Lizzy Smith 17.33, Katie Hughes 17.02, Hannah Hobbs 14.49
B team: Kirstie Hamilton-James 17.41, Tamsin Elson Chick 19.17, Sarah Thorne 19.37, Linda Phillips 22.15”
[pictured above]
The men had a good day too, with the Seniors Team (Adam Wilson, Oli Beale, Joe Connors, Alan Uren, Chris O’Donovan and Alex Hamblin) finishing 17th (out of 118 teams) and qualifying for the Nationals. Oli, Alex and Alan all ran PBs, with Oli’s lightning 19:14 (over a 5.88 km course) the 10th fastest time for his leg, moving his 3 year old daughter to respond (as Geraint noted) “can we go to the pub now please?”
There was a male Masters (V35 and over) team for the first time in a while, and they exceeded expectations with a very respectable 12th place out of 28 teams, with strong and consistent running and times from all members (Ewan Paton, Nick Smart, Robin Phillips, Geraint Torrington, Chris Palmer and Richard Noble).
In the “Young Athletes 3 stage” events for U13s, U15s and U17s there were also great runs.
Individual highlight of the day was the medal for fastest time in the U15 girls from Dalis Jones (14:02 over 3.88km), en route to the team (Dalis, Rosie Hamilton-James and Rhiannon Paton) narrowly missing a podium place but finishing an excellent 4th out of 42 teams.
The U13 girls (Ruby Saunders, Abbie Woodworth and Megan Porteous) ran consistently well to retain 14th place over all three legs in a field of 36 teams. The U17 girls (Ellie Hobbs, Isobel Smart and Phoebe Gould) finished 11th out of 28 teams, with Ellie Hobbs running the 4th fastest overall individual leg in 14:39.
The U13 boys (Soloman Scott, Seamus Robinson and Finn Goodhew) also secured a ‘top half’ finish, 19th out of 39 teams, with Seamus also running the 4th fastest individual leg (an impressive 13:52). The U17 boys’ ‘A’ team’ (Aidan Noble, Greg Hayward, Abdi Hasan) finished in a brilliant 6th place in a field of the highest quality – less than a minute overall behind the winners Notts AC. Great credit and thanks also to Ben Rawlins and Adam Kilgour (in the U17s) and to Johan Hobbs (U15) for turning up to represent the club and run so well in incomplete teams – a solo effort in Johan’s case, running a brisk 14:06 for 16th out of 45 in the first leg.
Thanks to all coaches, team captains and parents for all their organisation, support and transport, on a long but highly enjoyable and successful day.
