SEAA Women’s 6-Stage relays, Milton Keynes

First ever road relay medals for the Belles

Catherine Eastham writes: A couple of weeks ago we thought that this could be the Belles' year for doing well at the "Southerns". Then, as athlete after athlete pulled out, the forecast was looking less promising, with expectations adjusted to a hopeful top 5 placing. Even when Birhan Dagne decided to join the team, it seemed highly unlikely that we’d make the top three. But hey, it just goes to show that you can never underestimate the Belles.

In the event, 2005 saw Belgrave’s women earn Silver medals, their first ever in this competition, with bonus bottles of wine for being the most improved team. On top of that, Birhan Dagne claimed the fastest overall leg of the day, and the Belles almost completed their first B team in this race. Coupled with the men’s A and B team wins, it was very nearly a Claret and Gold clean sweep!

Stage 1

Hoping for a fast, competitive race, Birhan Dagne elected to take the first leg. Having dropped out of the London Marathon, Birhan’s distance training stood her in good stead and she quickly took the lead. Finishing a couple of seconds clear of SLH’s Eleanor Baker, the Belles came home, as expected, in first place. Now it was down to the rest of the team to hold on. Louise Cooper, a surprising choice for the B team also finished strongly in 19th place with a faster than predicted run given her marathon mileage. Had Louise been selected for the A team and performed the same time, the medals could have been of golden hue.

1 Belgrave 18:48; 2 South London 18:50; 3 Headington 19:21; 19 Belgrave B 21:12; 34 teams started.

Fastest: 1 B Dagne (Belgrave) 18:48; 2 E Baker 18:50; 3 A Hirst (Headington) 19:21; 19 L Cooper (B) 21:12.

Stage 2

Our experienced captain Juliette Clark has been in this position on many previous occasions. A regular first or second leg runner for the Belles, Jules was not at all fazed by Birhan’s leading run and struck out on the 5.5km course with grit and determination. The competition amongst the Belles is getting ever tougher and having achieved three of Belgrave’s top six times over this course, Jules could be relied upon to keep the team near the top. She came in just one place down on SLH’s runner and had the Belles in a better place than hoped for. Shaftesbury’s runner had gained seven places to move into 3rd, just 12 seconds down. Back in the B team, Jayne Lawrence reminded herself just how tough the 5.5km course was as she was buffeted by strong winds. Another of our marathon runners, the distance felt, for her, somewhat short!

1 South London (+1) 39:31; 2 Belgrave (-1) 39:44; 3 Shaftesbury Barnet (+7) 39:56; 20 Belgrave B (-1) 43:41.

Fastest: 1 C Lodwig (Blackheath &B) 19.39; 2 M Cooper (Shaftesbury Barnet) 19:47; 3 J Kelsey (Winchester &D) 19:49; 9 J Clarke (Belgrave A) 20:56; 20 J Lawrence (B) 22:29.

Stage 3

Based back in Germany now, it was good news for the Belles that Christine Bertram had to be back in the UK this weekend. Having had an excellent cross country season and being focused more on the shorter distances, Christine was faced with the unenviable task of trying to maintain the Belles second spot. Gaining on the SLH runner ahead of her Christine then had to face Wells’ Gascoigne storming past and gaining four places to take the lead. The gap between the top five had narrowed though and four runners were lining up behind Christine at 10-second intervals as she remained in second and handed over to Helen Smethurst. Sarah Gailey had a strong individual run for the B’s maintaining a place just outside the top 20. At this stage, the Belles were also the first B team, over two minutes clear of the next B team, Ealing.

1 Wells City (+4) 1:00:47; 2 Belgrave (0) 1:01:24; 3 South London (-2) 1:01:34; 21 Belgrave B (-1) 1:07:36.

Fastest: 1 A Lethbridge (Aldershot F&D) 19:59; 2 S Davey (Phoenix) 20:30; 3 C Dickie (Windsor SE&H) 20:33; 7 C Bertram (Belgrave A) 21:40; 25 S Gailey (B) 23:55.

Stage 4

With nerves of steel Helen Smethurst started down the hill. Whether she looked behind and saw her rivals lining up behind her we’ll never know. Helen deserves the athlete of the day prize for not letting the pressure get to her during such a potentially hazardous leg. The honest expectation was that we’d drop two or three places and come back in around fifth, but to see Helen coming up the hill in the lead and looking exceptionally strong brought a murmur of excitement to the waiting crowd. The Belles were back in the lead with only two legs to go. Another brave athlete battling the course for the B team was David Lucas’ daughter, Liz. In her first competitive outing she helped to almost complete a B team.

1 Belgrave (+1) 1:22:06; 2 Highgate (+3) 1:22:13; 3 Shaftesbury Barnet (+1) 1:22:20; 30 Belgrave B (-9) 1:37:50.

Fastest: 1 J Booth (Ealing S&M) 18:54; 2 S Morris (Bedford &C) 19:00; 3 M McCallum (Winchester &D) 19:15; 30 L Lucas (B) 30:14.

Stage 5

What would Tilly Heaton be able to do, taking a very narrow advantage into leg 5? This could be the danger leg with clubs throwing a fast runner “curve ball” at the team. Tilly’s task was to try and maintain a top three position to give last leg runner Vicky Clarke a fighting chance and, as always, Tilly played it by the book. As both Highgate and Shaftesbury runners went past Tilly fought on until at the finish there was less than a minute separating the top three places. Meanwhile, somewhere out on the course, team manager Catherine Eastham was having a battle of her own. When you’re running around sorting out two teams and getting rather excited about your A team’s position, it’s rather hard to get round to warming-up, stretching and getting yourself into any fit state to race…

1 Highgate (+1) 1:41:30; 2 Shaftesbury Barnet (+1) 1:41:55; 3 Belgrave (-2) 1:42:22; 27 Belgrave B (+3) 2:02:17.

Fastest: 1 S Abel (Highgate) 19:17; 2 V Webster (Shaftesbury Barnet) 19:35; 3 K Hazlitt (Winchester &D) 19:35; 21 C Eastham (B) 24:27.

Stage 6

With the B team’s 5th leg runner still out on the course in front of the leading teams who were now nearing the finish, it was quite understandable that passers-by assumed that the figure plodding along in the Belgrave vest might just be that of the lead runner. Cheers of “Go on Belgrave”, “Well done Belgrave” echoed in the team manager’s ears, only to be followed by the side comment “She can’t be in the lead at that pace….”. Still, for a moment there… Not far behind and rapidly closing, Shaftesbury’s Rachel Felton had moved into the lead. Vicky Clarke had set out with a 50 second deficit on the lead, 30 seconds behind Shaftesbury. Stride by stride Vicky began to reel them both in. Soon we were into second and the gap to the leader was still shrinking as the runners went into the straight past the Belgrave tent. As the cheers echoed around her Vicky made one last ditch attempt up the hill, but the gap was just too great. Collapsing on the line just behind the team manager (who’d only just finished herself and got pipped by winners Shaftesbury by 2 seconds), the Belles were ecstatic. Yes, lessons will be learned from the race and there were lots of what ifs and maybes, which could have seen us win Gold. But for now, let’s just relish this outstanding performance and hope it's the first of many.

1 Shaftesbury Barnet (+1) 2:02:15; 2 Belgrave (+1) 2:02:33; 3 Winchester &D (+1) 2:04:09; 28 teams finished.

Fastest: 1 J Tarrant (Barnet &D) 19.32; 2 N Sykes (Bedford &C) 19:36; 3 V Clarke (Belgrave) 19:11.

Fastest Overall:

1 B Dagne (Belgrave) 18:48; 2 E Baker (South London) 18:50; 3 S Morris (Bedford &C) 19:00; 4 M McCallum (Winchester &D) 19:15; 5 S Abel (Highgate) 19:17; 6 A Hirst (Headington) 19:21; 26 V Clarke 20:11; 28 M Heaton 20:16; 42 H Smethurst W40 20:42; 47 J Clark W40 20:56.

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