AAA Women’s 4 Stage Road Relay, Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield

Belles build on the Sutton Park tradition

With the men’s team hoping to retain the 6-stage title, the women’s team’s sights were set slightly lower. In only their second ever attempt at the National 4-stage the goal was to finish in the top 12. Having placed 7th in the previous year, we knew that the team this time round was missing a number of key athletes. Still, the fact that the team has managed to compete well at this level and have interest from Athletics Weekly, wanting to know our women’s team race order, shows how far things are already progressing.

Stage 1

Last year Getenesh Tamirat was unable to score for Belgrave as she awaited clearance, but this time round she set off on the first leg settling easily into the fast pace needed as 82 teams headed off round the windy course. By the Jubilee Stone reports came back that she was running strongly in 4th, a position she maintained through to the end of the lap. It was the Belles fastest time of the day and 5 seconds quicker than 2001 - a great run from Getenesh.

1 Salford H&AC 14:22; 2 City of Glasgow 14:34; 3 Dartford H 14:39; 4 Belgrave H 14:51; 5 Tipton H 14:56; 6 Coventry Godiva H 15:05.

Fastest: L.Heyes (Salford H&AC) 14:22; S.Partridge (City of Glasgow) 14:34; A Green (Dartford H) 14:39; G.Tamirat (Belgrave H) 14:51; J.Groves (Tipton H) 14:56; M.Baker (Coventry Godiva H) 15:05.

Stage 2

With Dartford only having a first leg runner, Louise Cooper headed off down the course in 3rd place. We knew there would be places lost on this leg but warned Louise to run her own race and not to start off way too fast. As the field around chopped and changed, Louise’s focus on longer distances started to show and, heavy legged, she finished in 25th place some 30 seconds down on expectations.

1 Tipton H (+4) 30:07; 2 Salford H&AC (-1) 30:12; 3 City of Glasgow (-1) 30:15; 4 Windsor SE&H AC (+11) 30:18; 5 Chester-le-Street (+9) 30:21; 6 Coventry Godiva H (0) 30:28 ... 25 Belgrave H (-21) 32:25.

Fastest: J.Lodge (Windsor SE&H AC) 14:45; M.McDonnell (Chester-le-Street) 14:49; L.Wright (Leeds City) 14:53; K.Scales (Tipton H) 15:11; L.Wood (Bedford &C AC) 15:12; K.Thomas (Coventry Godiva H) 15:23 ... L.Cooper 17:34.

Stage 3

Next up was Vicky Edwards who had earlier indicated that her left leg felt a bit tight but had written it off as pre-race paranoia. Unfortunately though, the tightness came back to haunt Vicky in the race, and her performance was 20 seconds or so down on expectations. Still, Vicky had managed to pull back a place and hopefully the injury won’t affect next week’s half marathon. Meanwhile, WSE&H had moved into a medal position, with Hayley Yelling set to run the last leg…

1 Tipton H (0) 44:43; 2 Salford H&AC (0) 45:22; 3 Windsor SE&H AC (+1) 45:25; 4 City of Glasgow (-1) 45:50; 5 Shaftesbury Barnet H (+9) 45:59; 6 Wakefield &D (+4) 46:06; ... 24 Belgrave H (+1) 49:15.

Fastest: L.Elliott (Shaftesbury Barnet H) 14:36; D.Robinson (Tipton H) 14:36; A.Hoban (Wakefield &D) 14:59; L.Mawer (Bingley H&AC) 15:05; C.Dickie (Windsor SE&H AC) 15:07; B.Jenkins (Salford H&AC) 15:10; ... V.Edwards 16:50.

Stage 4

The final leg saw Maria Sharp absolutely flying for the Belles. Back to her previous good form Maria took the bit between her teeth and set about picking off the runners in front. Finishing three seconds faster than last year’s time Maria managed to bring the Belles back into 15th place; and although a couple of places down on expectations, 15th was an incredible achievement and another indication that the women’s team is going to go on and achieve great things on the road.

Hayley Yelling, meanwhile, clocked the fastest leg of the day to bring WSE&H back in gold medal positions, having set off 39 seconds down and finishing 26 seconds clear of Tipton. Bristol stayed in the medals again this year, with K Reed gaining 5 places with the third fastest leg of the day.

1 Windsor SE&H AC (+2) 59:40; 2 Tipton H (-1) 1:00:06; 3 Bristol AC (+5) 1:00:53; 4 City of Glasgow (0) 1:01:07; 5 Bedford &C AC (+2) 1:01:08; 6 Salford H&AC (-4) 1:01:12; ... 15 Belgrave H (+9) 1:04:41.

Fastest: H.Yelling (Windsor SE&H AC) 14:15; 2 K.Reed (Bristol AC) 14:31; D.Hennigan (Chester-le-Street) 14:32; S.Morris (Bedford &C AC) 14:53; K.Wilder (City of Glasgow) 15:17; E.Phillips (Tipton H) 15:23; ... M.Sharp 15:26

82 teams started; 71 teams finished.

Course distance: 4,134 metres.

Fastest legs of the day: 1 H.Yelling (Windsor SE&H AC) 14:15; 2 L.Heyes (Salford H&AC) 14:22; 3 K.Reed (Bristol AC) 14:31; 4 D.Hennigan (Chester-le-Street) 14:32; 5 S.Partridge (City of Glasgow) 14:34; =6 L.Elliott (Shaftesbury Barnet H) and D.Robinson (Tipton H) 14:36; 8 A.Green (Dartford H) 14:39; 9 J.Lodge (Windsor SE&H AC) 14:45; 10 M.McDonnell 14:49; 11 G.Tamirat (Belgrave H) 14:51.

Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.