SEAA Men's 12-Stage Road Relay, Milton Keynes
Bob’s Beagles Brutally Batter Becalmed Bels
Guest reporter Will Cockerell writes:
Epic medal streak
Belgrave extended their medal streak in this race to 12, which appears to be some sort of club record for us in a major championship. Our next best, it seems, was medalling either side of World War II in the National 12-stage between 1932-1949, for a streak of 11 races.
Kicking off on leg 1 was a focussed Sharpy, running his 35th consecutive road relay for the Bels, an astonishing achievement, but one feels he’s only going to really savour it in his pipe and slippers. For now, it’s all business, fire and brimstone and he arrived at the finish muttering in disgust at his inadequacies. He needn’t have – 5th place, 10 seconds quicker than last year with runners neatly lined up ahead for James Fairbourn to have a pop at. James also improved a fair bit from last year and climbed us up a spot on the leaderboard. Over to Paskar Owor who has served the cross-country section well this term, and he chased hard around the lake to bring us into the medals.
“I’d’ve got close to that!”
Richard Stannard is becoming fitter by the week and too long he has been on the cusp of our relay teams. He’s just the sort of man you want: unflappable, cool, experienced and rippling with muscles to unnerve the opposition. Rich’s tasty 17.18 brought us up to silver. We had a gap over Aldershot in 3rd of 9 seconds, as the Cockerpillar set out. His AFD opponent was Neil Phillips who placed 122 positions higher than our man at the National cross, so when Phillips stormed by after a kilometre it was damage limitation time. He didn’t get away though and Will even nicked him back at the end. Obviously Philips had a problem though as both times were off-colour, which had Will complaining that he’d been ‘sucker-punched into a go-slow’.
Lander Eguia and Mal Byansi were almost too close to call for the final team spot. Lander got the call in the end by his superb turn at the Surrey county champs where he duffed up Mal by over two minutes. Lander ran nicely to form with 18:02, to which Mal was heard to riposte in playful tone, “I’d’ve got close to that!” Indeed he would, and his 26.09 opener for the B’s shows that Mal has run himself into fitness, but he just left it too late for this one.
Right, half-way and Bobby Boucher’s Aldershot were showing us the way by 45 seconds in silver, with Newham already long gone. Step up Polly who is not quite at his best over the long stages, he really excels as a short-stage master-blaster (as in his memorable debut for us at Sutton Park in ’07). But he’s tough as old boots, and had a fine duel with Steve Connor who could only extend AFD’s advantage by a mere one tick of the clock.
Return of the Animal
The animal was back! For some this was the most pleasing sight of the day seeing the inspirational ‘Danders’ back in the claret and gold. He has found his running again through triathlon and his relay stats before this race were played 16, won 14. Add to that National team half-marathon and 10k titles and you have one of the most potent Belgravians of all time. David ran very nicely here for a fine 16:54 just over a minute off his mind-boggling 15:51 from 2003. Nine seconds had been clawed back on AFD. What could JK do about the remaining 37? Well he couldn’t, but only 4 seconds were leaked. Jim has bulked up a bit since he became a marathoner and the glide has slightly gone from his stride. That, he is learning, is the deal with the devil one must make when stepping up to the epic distance. Since the race Jim has come down with shin splints which is a darn shame and we all hope this is a mere blip in what could be an excellent marathon career, with the 2.20 barrier hopefully negotiated several times over the coming decade.
Stunning Trio
In a monk-like piece of self-restraint and denial, the team manager had kept our three biggest guns for last – perhaps they could do something about the nagging AFD problem. Boy, could they ever! Wicksy, Dan and Nicky-boy proceeded to rip 4 mins and 39 seconds out of our Hampshire friends, to turn a 41 second deficit into a 3:58 advantage. Some going. In fact 17 seconds were even taken out of Newham in this last quarter, but that record-breaking ship had long disappeared from view. It was great to see Phil back – what a stunning run off very little training, long may his recovery continue. Dan fired in an immaculate stage fastest 24:05 on the graveyard shift, and Nick was fine and dandy in isolation on anchor, with 4th fastest of the day.
Many congrats to Newham on their fine showing; with a performance like that one wonders how this could be their first ever triumph at MK. A certain Mr Farah was a key ingredient as he relieved Keith Cullen of his long-standing course record. Hopefully we can get closer to them at the National, we shall certainly try. The day closed with the presentation of a large card to Alan congratulating him on his [first] 15 years as Belgrave TM. It had details of the 54 major titles he has led us to in that time. Musn’t grumble.
1 Newham & Essex Beagles 4:07:04 (record); 2 Belgrave H 4:12:43; 3 Aldershot, Farnham & Dist. AC 4:16:41; 4 Bedford & County AC 4:23:30; 5 Woodford Green w Essex Ladies AC 4:25:04; 6 Herne Hill H 4:27:29; 37 teams started, 28 teams finished.
Belgrave ‘A’. S Sharp 24:35 (5); J Fairbourn (4) 17:51; P Owor (3) 24:48; R Stannard (2) 17:18; W Cockerell (2) 26:15; L Eguia (3) 18:02; M Pollard (3) 25:22; D Anderson (3) 16:54; J Kelly (3) 24:58; P Wicks (2) 16:06; D Mulhare (2) 24:05; N Goolab (2) 16:29.
Belgrave ‘B’. M Byansi (21) 26:09; M Trees M45 (20) 18:23; J Kimaiyo (15) 26:32; R Norville (20) 19:41; K Hegvold M45 (21) 28:14; T Thorn (26) 22:33; M Whiting (24) 28:35; 8 R Harding M45 (13) 21:30; P Marsh M55 (26) 31:36.
Fastest short stages (5,506m): 1 M Farah (NEB) 15:46 (record); 2 P Wicks (Belgrave H) 16:06; 3 M Warmby (Newham &EB) 16:13.
Fastest long stages (7,978m): 1 M Geele (NEB) 23:50; 2 D Mulhare (Belgrave H) 24:05; 3 M Goose (CoNAC) 24:08.
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.