It was a double celebration at the Midlands Road Relays as both the senior men and senior women took the titles.
Senior Women
The women run 6 stages at this event and won by nearly 6 minutes, a fantastic performance all round. Birchfield was well represented in this race with three teams so it was great to see so many black vests on show.
A TEAM.
First off was Hannah Robinson on a long leg. Coming off the back of a strong performance at the Cardiff 10k a week ago she gave the team the perfect start by coming home in 2nd place with a time of 31:43.
Next to go was Sarah McDonald who is finally back to fitness and feeling good. She started conservatively but once at the top of the hill she pushed on and came home with a healthy lead with the quickest short leg time of the day of 17:30.
Lily Partridge, on the next long leg put paid to any team who thought they could catch Birchfield with a super run to give the team a 3min. 42sec.lead with the quickest long leg time of the day at 30;03.
Despite the lead tere was no easing up though as Hayley Carruthers, well on the way to her best form again ran the second quickest short leg of the day in 18:16 increasing the lead to around 6 minutes.
Carli Baldwin held on well in the next short leg to maintain the lead and finally Naomi Collier with the 4th quickest short leg of the day and brought the team home with a time of 18:41.
Lizzie Watters had a very strong run on the first long leg to come back in 8th place with a time of 34:12. On leg 2 Vicky Bradbury was a little under the weather but held her position and set a time of 20:42 Ashlin McCaree just back from Uni did the second long leg dropping a couple of places to come back in 36:15. Georgie Rogers immaculate as ever, has swapped the hurdles for distance running with some style, and she gained a place to 10th with a time of 20:27. Ghita Bahimhouari ran a good leg of 23:41 to come back in 11th. Our last runner in this team was 5 Danel Jansen van Rensberg who closed the scoring with a time of 21:53 and brought us back to 10th.
C TEAM
Sam Watters was first to go on the long leg and ran a time of 39:54 in 37th place which was a two minute PB. Annie Kibble ran a great leg with a time of 20:41 and she gained 8 places up to 29th. eg 3 Sarah Conway, on the second long leg, came back in 38:38 gaining another place up to 28th Lisa Taylor making her debut for the Club ran strongly in 22:50 bringing the team up to 27th. followed by Emily Evans who was making a return to competition running 28:17 to put the team in 30th place. Completing the day for the Cub was Esther Hunt who with a times of 20:56 pulled back three places to close the team in 27th
There were 60 complete teams and there was a lot to celebrate with Lily running the fastest long leg and and Sarah Macdonal the quickest short leg plus three in the top five quickest short leg runners with Hayley second quickest and and Naomi at fourth fastest.
Senior Men
It is al long day at the 12 stage road relays for the men but with a strong team out they were hopeful of a win on the day.
First off on a long leg was Ed Banks and a srtong run of 28.10 brought the team back in 11th place. Next to go was Matt Scarsbrook on the second long leg. Just three seconds quicker than Ed with 28.07 he gained four places to finish in seventh place. Next up was Kadar Omar with a very strong run making up three more places in a time of 26.51, the third fastest of the day. Omar Ahmed, following his win in the 10km in Cardiff last weekend was in fine form and finished in second place with the fastest time of the day of 25.53.
The next eight runners were all running short legs. Daniel Swain ran his fastest time on this course of 16.08 to come home to maintian second place. Joseph Heathcock maintinned the position with a time of 16.23 handing over to Club stalwart and verteran Orlando Corea, who continued the momentum posting a time of 16.35. Jonathan Bradford followed and he chased down the Notts AC athlete to come home in first place with a time of 16.11. U20 Dominic Smith secured this position with the 10th fastest time of the day of 15.53 to extend the lead to 35 seconds. Shaun Evans cemented the lead to almost 2 minutes with a time of 15.54, just a second slower than Dominic. Jason Bennett tool over and his time of 16.15, continued to increase the gap between Birchfield and the team i n second. Finally James Vaughan, another U20 ran the fastest short leg in the Birchfield team of 15.49, for a winning margin of almost 2 minutes.
It was a great performance and every athlete contributed to the win. With a fantastic team spirit in both the women and men's teams it was a great day all round. Congratulations to the all the athletes, coaches and team managers.