Men's SEAA XC relay, Wormwood Scrubs, 20 Oct 2018
Autumn relay season - Madness comes in threes!
Well, hasyour whamboozled Team manager run the full gamut of emotions or what?! From [proverbially] kicking a kitten throughan electric fan, to perhaps the greatest race I ever saw at Belgrave, this hasbeen some six weeks…
We startedwith one of the nastiest little episodes I can recall in my 20 years in clubathletics when Surrey CAA rejected our entry for the road relays for reasons astrite as it gets. I entered on thecorrect day, but didn’t notice the entry had a ‘time stamp’ on it; an oddityseveral other TMs didn’t catch either. No amount of persuading or cajoling would do, and what was reallyunnerving is that never did I get a real person to correspond with, it wasalways ice-cold missives from the “Surrey online team.”
The decision to exclude us was far too hardline for a fairly low key competition which struggles for consistent quality at the sharp end. We have the best record in it in the last 20 years, and organized the day ourselves for a decade since of late. Even Hercules, the venue hosts were not allowed to run an extra team when they too missed the time stamp. Absolutely bonkers - the Olympics this ain’t. Suffice it to say there was a yawning gap of four minutes between 2nd and 3rd where our squad would have nestled.
Then, at theSEAA 6 stage, despite happily taking our £120, a rollicking fee for such ashort relay, we got no darn numbers. TheB’s couldn’t start, and the A’s a month later, have STILL to be put into theresults. It’s a bit of an outrage, butwhat can I say… they’re working on it!
For the recordthe squad was missing loads, and were only about 43rd, but oursextet battled nobly:
Owor 18:00, Buckle 19:42, Finlay 20:49, Mills A 20:24, Hurley 20:46, Cockerell 21:28.
Third time lucky then with the SEAA XC relay. An event which is finally capturing the imagination of the clubs, despite non-existent marketing from the SEAA. Many clubs still ignore it, which I don’t really get because it’s always made for splendid fare, and I instantly saw it as something our local lads could really get stuck into when it was founded eight years ago. We’ve had good fun with a 1, 2, 5, 1, 2, 3, 3… What would 2018’s vintage bring?!
With a beg,steal and a borrow we assembled a fab four on paper of Goolab, Owor, Buckle andTouse; but off paper they were creaking at the seams a little! The order was tricky as I did worry aboutputting Tinos last due to him probably going off in the lead (a difficultrunning art in itself), and him being so unfamiliar with the course, with theidiosyncratic ways courses are marked, notably this one. But it was so harsh to ask the skipper NickBuckle to go last when not race fit, and PO operates best in a scrap, and maestroGoolab also needed help given he hasn’t done a session for months.
To the start then, and Nick B toiled manfully in a really strong field. 15 mins is what we wanted, about 50 secs off the lead, and he delivered to perfection. Paskar was rechristened Phil in the race programme - I crave Wicksy so much I hallucinate on race entries! But like his friend, Paskar’s ripped through some fields in his time, but his was a bit special: 14th to 2nd – take that. But, up ahead the outstanding Poolman of Highgate was going 5 ticks quicker.
So, a nearperfect scenario for Nick Goolab, who still hasn’t finagled a session on hiscomeback, and had to toil for nearly a mile before even glimpsing theredoubtable Robert Wilson. But then thegap started to come down and down, but we needed a lead to give Tinos everypossible chance. A superb run by Nick,for 4th best of the day, and that lead was a fragile 15 seconds, andSean Renfer is no slouch.
As feared,one of the biggest problems for Tinos was navigation, for an English XC course doestake a bit of nous. Once you understandthe peccadilloes it’s ok, but sometime a flag placing is a ‘yellow brick road’moment; which way to go? This happened ahandful of times, and fatally a mile from home, when KT went wrong by 30 yards,a mad dash to correct, and with lactic firing through his system, Renfer stunglike a bee to open out 50 yards in the next 800.
But the race still had two amazing twists. Tinos didn’t give up and kept Renfer in check but behind there was pandemonium as Mo Aarun was operating at top speed and suddenly Thames Valley were in contention for the whole darn shooting match. The last 500 meters were incredible as Aaden cut into Touse who cut into Renfer… Another 50 yards and the order would probably have been reversed – and we’d have still lost! What we needed was about another 20 yards…
But all credit to Renfer who dryly observed “that wasn’t particularly enjoyable,” and a great sell to the magic of club athletics, with amazing support from the crowd too, as our image shows.
Was it the bestrace in my time with the Bels? Ooohh,close, but I’ll go with the 2001 National 6 stage and Spencer Barden’s intense duelwith a flying Mo Farah, which saw us squeak home by 4 ticks. To this day, I’ve still never seen Mo sodejected and I left thinking, “that boy has fire in his belly.”
Finally, aword for the baby Bees, who toiled manfully and were 5th B team home,which is most encouraging.
1 Highgate H57:47; 2 Belgrave H 57:48; 3 Thames Valley H 57:49; 4 Hillingdon 58:08; 5Brighton 58:37… 21 Belgrave H ‘B’66:29... 46 teams started, 42 finished.
N Buckle (14)15:02; P Owor (2) 14:02; N Goolab (1) 13:57; K Touse (2) 14:47.
B: R Finlay 16:14; B Hurley 16:44; A Mills16:21; C Warren 17:10.
Fastest: M Aaden (TVH) 13:26, A Abdulle (Hill) 13:42;R Poolman (Highg) 13:55.