All Good at Aldershot

Above: Tom Jervis on the first leg for the A team. Photos courtesy of Mark Hookway

The Club’s teams were out in force on Saturday for the unofficial Southern Road Relay Championships at Aldershot. The Senior Men’s A team finished in a brilliant sixth place and the B team in a fantastic 17th to qualify both teams to go forward to the National Championships in Sutton Park, Birmingham in two weeks time. Underlining the depth of the squad the C and D teams came home in 29th and 41st of the 66 complete teams from the South of England’s leading clubs who had opted to support the event in preference to the ‘official’ Championships at Crystal Palace.

Qualification for the National is usually a straightforward affair. Clubs compete in the Southern, Northern or Midlands regional championships with the top 25 A teams and any B teams finishing in the top 25 progressing to the National showdown a couple of weeks later.

This year however the process was thrown into disarray after most of the Southern Region's top clubs, HW included, boycotted the official Championships at Crystal Palace citing poor organisation and communication on the part of the South of England Athletic Association (SEAA) – not least a last minute change of date for the SEAA Championships. The various grievances, amounting to 'a catalogue of errors' and 'an erosion of trust' were aired in an open letter to the SEAA published in AW Magazine.

Given the unprecedented situation Clubs then had to wait for the England Road Running Association (ERRA) to decide on the qualification process for the Nationals. It was decreed that the first 8 teams from each would qualify automatically, with the next ten teams to finish at each venue, including B teams, subject to consideration and invitation from the ERRA.

At Aldershot Tom Jervis sent the A team off on a flying start in 18:00, the fastest HW time of the day, handing over in fifth to Andrew Penney (below) who lifted the team into second in 18:22.

However, the nature of these relays is that clubs frequently choose to backload their teams, and despite consistently excellent runs from Jonny Cornish (18:19), George Mallett (18:43) and Dan Cliffe (18:20) captain Fred Slemeck took over in fifth with the unenviable task of trying to defend against Jacob Allen of Highgate Harriers, whose time of 17:42 was the fourth fastest of the day. So sixth place it was, and most importantly a guaranteed qualification for the National Championships

Above: For the A team, Jonny Cornish (left) and George Mallett. Below: Fred Slemeck (left) and Dan Cliffe.

A and B team selection involves a great deal of head-scratching these days, with so many athletes in contention. Proving the point, after Ed Mallett ran 18:36 on the first leg for the B team, Charlie Eastaugh ran the fifth fastest HW time overall, clocking 18:35 to move up from 16th to 12th before Finn Johnson (19:15), Joe Croft (19:30), Archie Walton (19:33) and James Stockings (19:11) eventually brought the team home in 17th, which was also to prove good enough to secure selection for the Nationals.

In the Senior Women's 4-stage event, the team of Matilde Lomba, Alex Binley, Lulu Weisz (U20) and Leonora Lynn (U23) finished in 28th out of 44 complete teams.

The Club's young athletes were also out in force at Aldershot. Not to be outdone by the Seniors, in the Junior 3-leg races the U13 Boys trio of Sam Dyson, Harry Allen and Theo Creed finished in an excellent fifth out of 28 complete teams, with Sam running the 12th fastest U13 leg of the day.

The U13 Girls team of Isabella Harrison, Leah Paulson and Beatrice Eminson were an impressive ninth out of 27 teams with Isabella also finishing twelfth fastest in her age group on the day.

For the U15 Girls, Iona Alexander, Lara Delport and Ava McAndie finished 23rd; and Josie Hughes, Elizabeth Thompson and Dillan Quinn in 30th. Both U17 teams finished in 24th: Hugo Kelly, Tom Davies and Theo Webb for the men; and Sophie Conway, Charlotte Lam and Ariana Shala for the women.

Full results

County Medals

The Senior Men's A team collected silver medals at the Surrey Road Relay Championships on September 17, narrowly missing out to South London Harriers in defence of the title they won last year.

On the first leg Andrew Penney clocked 13:54, the fastest time of the day, over the familiar course which begins and ends on the track at Wimbledon Park and covers approximately three miles of the park and local roads in between. Joe Croft on leg 2 clocked 14:49, followed by Finn Johnson (14:26), George Mallett (14:25), and Richard McDowell, who ran 15:03 after already posting 15:13 to claim the fastest M40 leg of the day for the vets team. Ed Mallett brought the team home in 14:28.

The B-team, which finished in eighth, was notable for a double leg by Dan Cliffe, who doesn't have Surrey qualification and was therefore ineligible to score for the A team, plus a second run by Dave Grima, who also turned out for the M40 team; plus Liam White's return to racing after a long rehab following multiple knee operations.

The M40 team, completed by Keith Scofield and Simon Woodington (M45) won silver medals, while the M50s – Matt de Freitas, Brian Lynch, Tom Cheetham (M55), and Pete Clarke, M60 – won bronze, with Pete turning out again to help Tony Austin (M65) and Tom Morris finish fifth in the M60 category.

The Senior Women's team of Matilde Lomba (W35), Estle Viljoen (W50), Alex Binley and Marilena De Luca (W45) were sixth.

Full results at http://www.surreyathletics.uk