AAA, Inter-County & Open 10km Road Race, Bourton-on-the-Water, Glos
AAA 10km Champions!
Pictures below: left the start was chaotic. Right, Erica Fogg leads Tilly Heaton early on the first lap.
Photos by Patricia Mead.
In early autumn sunshine around 400 road runners descended on the picturesque Cotswold village of Bourton-on-the-Water for the AAA 10kRoad Running Championship. The course was a flat two-lapper with a fast out and back section but a few tight bends and a blustery breeze to contend with which held back times a little. The Belgrave men's team hoped for a set of medals (they won silver at Bradford in last year's event) while for the women, the sky was the limit as they turned out eight runners, all looking for pbs.
The start was chaotic. A sudden influx of slower runners, who took station just behind the very front line in the last few seconds before the gun was fired, meant that a wall of humanity had to be conquered before the task of running for the championship could be begun. Will Cockerell found himself in the early hundreds while Charlie Herrington overtook a man wearing hiking boots as the village was approached for the first time.
As far as the winner of the open race was concerned, it was all over within 2k. Kenyan Julius Kibet had grabbed a handy lead over his compatriots Wilson Koga and Wilfred Taragon - and he continued to extend this advantage all the way to the finish. But the race for the AAA Championship was tight. Hepples, Mussett, Whalley and David Anderson aggressively fought to occupy the same few metres of Gloucestershire tarmac and Hassan Raidi was well forward and tangling with Southern luminaries Lobb, Brooks and Mitchinson. It was difficult to spot the leading teams as runners were mostly wearing their county vests but we seemed to have the advantage with Newham & Essex Beagles (as ever) pushing us close.
Erica Fogg started off strongly for the women's team and set the pace for the Belles right from the start, but Angela Walker wasn't going to let her out of her sight and with a water bottle tucked into her belt (she was suffering from a sore throat), she kept the team momentum going. Up front last year's winner Miriam Wangari (interestingly not scoring for Tipton this year) looked set to retain her title.
Nothing changed much as the runners headed out into the country and returned to start the final lap. Will and Charlie had worked up through the field, Warren Lynch was having another "stormer" while Tilly Heaton was pressing Angela hard with Louise Cooper just a very few seconds behind.
And so to the finish. As expected, the Kenyan trio had the race stitched up although Taragon was in danger of being caught as the group of leading male Brits had split asunder in their efforts to win the individual AAA Championship. City of Stoke's Rob Whalley prevailed but Dave Anderson finished strongly, overtaking Hepples in the last metres to win AAA 'silver'. He might have gone better still but for a very nasty blister. Amazingly, Hassan had also maintained his high placing, a minute or so faster than expected, and Will was another to overtake men in the final stretch to reduce our score by what proved to be a very valuable couple of points. Charles, running in Buckinghamshire colours, was close behind Will - and at that stage we believed that with four to score we had won by a mile. An ecstatic Warren Lynch carved no less than 1:40 from his previous best!
The village green was like a battlefield as runners fought tooth and nail down the straight and then collapsed on the grass to recover; and now the women were finishing. Our eight runners had set out determined to run their best 10kms and no less than four came back having achieved personal records. The the announcer shouted: "Here comes a Belgrave athlete, and here's another Belgrave athlete, and here's yet another Belgrave athlete..."
It seemed that we might have collected medals in both men's and women's categories but a late surprise was that it was only three to score. It had been four the previous year and nowhere on the entry form did it state the actual details. That made things a lot closer. Instead of romping away with the men's event, we had won by just two points from a Bedford trio who were incognito in their county vests and who had actually closed in before our third man. Nevertheless, we were winners, although fourth Belgravian Charlie had missed out on the medals.
For the women the situation was even more confused. In spite of personal bests from Erica, Angela and Tilly, the team did not show up at all on early result sheets. It seemed that Angela had been missed off the results altogether and neither she nor Tilly were included in our scoring team. By the time of the presentation things had been rectified but sadly it was fourth place and just out of the medals.
Louise Cooper had run her fastest time in 10 years and was so close to beating 38 minutes. Vicki Edwards and Helen Smethurst were the next two runners behind her and together they brought the B team home in 8th place - the first B team. Vicki, who had qualified to represent Great Britain in the triathlon World Championships and moved home and job all within the last few weeks, found the race tough, as did Helen, who had been suffering from a cold for the past two weeks. Yet, to watch them race, with gritted teeth and focus, such troubles were not apparent. With two teams in the top ten in the AAA and just one runner short of completing a C team this must have been one of the Belles' best road team performances ever in spite of the lack of medals. They are on the path to championship success. As individuals and as a team they should be congratulated for their hard work and dedication to training. When the medals start appearing, they and we, will know just how deserved they are.
Men
1 J.Kibet (Kenya) 28:42; 2 W.Koga (Kenya) 29:24; 3 W.Taragon (Kenya) 29:39; 4 R.Whalley (City of Stoke) 29:44; 5 David Anderson 29:48; 12 H.Raidi 30:29; 36 W.Cockerell 31:32; 42 C.Herrington 31:58; 84 W.Lynch 33:11; 140 S.Zealey 36:20; 157 G.Reid M40 37:16; J.Browne dnf; 384 finished.
Teams: 1 Belgrave H (1, 8, 30) 39; 2 Bedford & Cnty (6, 10, 25) 41; 3 Newham & Essex Beagles (12, 18, 36) 66.
Women
1 M.Wangari (Kenya) 33:28; 2 P.Wangui (Kenya) 33:36; 3 C.Hoyte (Arena 80) 33:39; 25 E.Fogg 37:22; 30 A.Walker 37:52; 31 M.Heaton 38:07; 37 L.Cooper 38:32; 51 V.Edwards 39:32; 58 H.Smethurst 40:17; 67 S.Stracey 41:17; 71 J.Lawrence 41:44.
Teams: 1 Colchester & Tendring (10, 17, 20) 47; 2 Tipton H (8, 19, 33) 60; 3 Bristol AC (9, 12, 45) 66; 4 Belgrave H (22, 26, 27) 75; 8 Belgrave H 'B' (33, 46, 53) 122.
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.