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What a busy weekend - March 20, 2006

What a busy weekend for the great Belgrave Harriers, as our athletes did feisty battle all over the globe.  Huge congratulations to the inimitable Paul Freary.  Some of us remember a catty and unnecessary remark by an AW scribe six years ago, that Paul “wasn’t as talented as his father”.  And perhaps he wasn’t – not many people in the history of British distance running have been …  but Paul has now matched his father for one thing - that of being a world champion!  His father was world veterans' 10k and 25k champion, and now Paul has added the half-marathon to that sequence.  A quite wonderful family record. Great stuff, Paul!

Our boys in the national champs at Silverstone came up with all sorts of wild and wacky reasons to try not to score for the Bels: forgetting to put on a timing chip, forgetting to wear a club vest, forgetting it was a half-marathon and pinging sub-31 for 10k…  ironically, our leading (now discounted) scorer in the results, is no longer a member of the club.  However, all that said, we still nailed another medal in these champs for the fifth year in a row.  Man of the match, Tom Hadfield, 11th/5003 runners in easily the best gallop of his Belgrave career (even if he took little pleasure in running 13 miles in a virtual wind tunnel).

Oh yes ... relay season!

So…what do we have here…?  Oh yes, that’s it, relay season!  Mmmhmmm, ooh yeah, this I like.  Anyone connected to the Bels this century has enjoyed our rise to the top of British road running, but now we wonder, oh crystal ball, how long will it last?  I’ve no idea.  All I know is that as things stand, we send a team to a man-made lake off the M1 in six days, and if we can get 12 bodies around the course in under 15,250 seconds, we’ll have done our job.  The selection process for our team/teams is ongoing, and all being well, our line-up shall include whom I believe to be the greatest relay-runner in British athletics history.

Oh, so we’re fielding Dave Moorcroft are we?  Well, not as such.  You’ve gotta be winning the big ones to qualify as great in my book, and despite Moorcroft’s stunning times, he has recently penned an article about one of the big regrets of his career:  that he never tasted victory in the National 12-stage.  Have we poached Chris Davies, then?  Nope.  Davies, as we know, is a master relay man, but runs without pressure and – through no fault of his – has never tasted gold.

Can you guess who it is yet?

Enough red herrings.  My vote is for three reasons:  this man NEVER has a bad run, he causes utter mayhem on his stages, and is simply drowning in gold medals.  In 21 relay runs for Belgrave, I reckon he’s had 13 excellent runs, 7 good ones and 1 mediocre.  (And the latter comes when, in cricket parlance, he came into bat when the match was lost, had a slog, and was caught on the deep mid-wicket boundary).  As Rolf Harris might say: can you guess who it is yet?  Of course you can.  Here, for your viewing pleasure, is the legendary Stephen Sharp’s road relay record for Belgrave Harriers, since September, 29, 2001.  (Times in order of speed):