Race Report - National Autumn Road Relays - 04/10/2025

Women

2 Bristol & West AC A – 1:15:07

Deborah Bruce 19:43 Chelsea Creak 18:51 Charlotte Taylor 18:10 Chelsea Baker 18:22

27 Bristol & West AC B – 1:26:05

Maria Jones 21:15 Sarah Everitt 22:33Katie Strange 21:04 Justine Lynch 21:11

It is oft said by team managers that you get your fastest runners to the same start line once every ten years. When Sian announced the team for the National four-stage relays, analysis of the territorial relays a fortnight earlier suggested that the team was in with a shout of a medal and certainly in the top six. This notion raised excitement and apprehension in equal measure among both the team members and their supporters’ club!

Because most clubs put their fastest runner on the first leg, the leg is tough and requires steady nerves. It was entrusted to someone who has just that — namely, Debbie Bruce. Debbie was under some pressure from home, where it was her daughter’s birthday party — so, pressure all round! I was situated about a minute’s running time from the start, where the course hairpins downhill on roughly a 1K loop before the gruelling uphill incline. After a minute, Debbie was in 35th place, but she had already pulled back eight places after the 1K loop. I was confident that, with her marathon background, Debbie would continue to pull through the field and that the medal hunt was on course. Indeed, this proved to be the case, and Debbie finished in a creditable 23rd place — the hunt was “on.”

World mountain and international trail runner Chelsea Creak was back in the UK after a successful season. Chelsea confided that she had only had a fortnight back in the UK to get some speed up and therefore didn’t know quite what to expect. Chelsea strode purposefully past me for the first time in 21st place, and by the start of the incline she had picked up another three places. She evidently maintained this momentum to finish the stage in ninth place.

The next leg proved decisive! Charlotte Taylor was launched. Charlotte came whizzing past me, and at the start of the incline she was smiling, in 5th place and visibly closing the gap on those in front of her. By the stage finish Charlotte had taken the team into second place and, in doing so, recorded the third-fastest time of the day.

That left Chelsea Baker on the glory leg. Chelsea had a smile on her face when she came past me for the first time, which was broader as she ascended the hill. I “nipped” over to watch the finish, and Chelsea was positively beaming because the gap behind was huge. As a bonus, Chelsea posted the joint 4th-fastest time of the day.

The magnitude of the team’s achievement cannot be overstated. Not only was this the women’s first National relay team medal since the halcyon days of the Keith Brackstone era in 2015, but the margin between the winning team (Vale Royal) was small — at just 19 seconds — whereas the third (Aldershot) and fourth teams (Team Bath) were 41 and 91 seconds respectively in arrears. The team’s time was also a minute faster than the winner of the Midlands Road Relay a fortnight earlier.

Maria Jones did the first leg for the B team and used her track speed to advantage, tagging onto Debbie around the hairpin bend and on to the hill. She did suffer a bit from the fast start but held on to finish 41st to give the team the start they needed. Super international veteran Sarah Everitt stepped in once again, with Amy Hammersley forced to drop out with a heavy cold. Sarah, as ever, gave her all and remarkably only conceded one place to finish the stage in 42nd.

A reinvigorated Katie Strange took over and was looking good, picking up nine places — particularly on the hills. Katie handed over to Justine Lynch, who was making her debut at Sutton Park. Justine started off strongly and again picked up six places in all.

The B team has a lot to celebrate. Firstly, they were the fifth Midland team to finish and secondly the third B team. Additionally, they were a handy minute faster than Vale Royal’s B team. Come the Spring 6-stage relays this may be crucial. Given the half-dozen or more Nippy Ladies who were unavailable yesterday, and the success of both teams, there is the basis of more medals (gold?) in the Spring. So, please Nippy Ladies, get the dates of the Spring relays in your diaries!

-Chris Elson

Men

It’s not very often that a team can finish 4th in a National Championship final and yet be far from disappointed with the outcome.

While only narrowly missing out on the medals — less than 20 seconds after more than an hour and a half of racing — in autumn’s National 6-Stage Road Relay Championship may well be the unluckiest position to finish, our eventual 4th place exceeded pre-race expectations in a race in which we were in contention all the way and actually led at the end of the second stage.

This is a championship event in which we have only taken the bronze medals once — in 2006 — while our 4th place here equalled our best performance for 17 years. It was also a significant improvement on our 6th position last year, as well as not only avenging our defeat in last month’s Midland Area Championship by Western Tempo but also beating every club in the country north of Bristol.

“We certainly have to be well satisfied with this performance, particularly considering that four of our top runners — Will Battershill, Max Davis, Felix McGrath and Ben Robinson — were not available,” claimed team captain Kurt Taylor.

Fortunately, the predicted forecast of fierce winds and rain at the traditional Sutton Park venue was nothing like as bad as feared, though the very strong and blustery north-west wind must have seriously hampered any chance of setting long-standing records on the new course.

That said, you would hardly have guessed it as the early leaders set a frantic pace on the opening stage that saw young Flynn Jennings repeat the brilliant form he showed in the Midland Championship, where he set the fastest individual split of 15:51 for the 5.47-mile loop.

Sensibly tucked in behind the early pacesetters as they made light of the opposing wind up the long slog to the top of the course, his challenge at the front never flinched as the leaders tore back downwind before the final drag to the finish, where he came in a close third, just two seconds down — in a time three seconds quicker than he had posted at the Midlands in notably less favourable conditions.

Devonian Flynn, who is a student at Loughborough University, is clearly one of the club’s outstanding South West recruits, and it was encouraging to hear his coach Andy Glover tell us how it has raised his aspirations and certainly given his promising career the competitive opportunities that his talent warrants.

After such a great start, it was now up to Jack Millar (16:17) to capitalise — and he certainly did. Mindful of the opposing wind on the early climb, he was content to drop back to 5th, but once on the top of the course he pulled the leaders back and went ahead on the long downhill run to establish a seven-second lead by the finish.

I imagine it was not a position Dylan Rigby (16:47) had been anticipating, and as a relatively new member of our top team, not surprisingly perhaps, he may have set off a bit faster than ideal in order to protect our lead. Even so, he fought all the way and did well to lose only two places and keep us in the bronze medal position at halfway.

Milan Campion (16:29), who had clocked our second-best time at the Midlands, could not quite match that form, but has not been well of late and did all that could be expected to keep us very much in the medal hunt — albeit he was, not surprisingly, overhauled by Western Tempo’s star recruit Jacob Cann, who was rewarded with the day’s fastest leg (15:30).

It now fell to the longest-standing member of our elite team, Cornishman Pete Le Grice (16:33), now in a still competitive 5th position, to keep us in contention. At last clear of the setbacks he has had to overcome in recent years, Pete is looking much fitter, and though he prefers longer distances these days, he dug in up the hill and did well to lose only just over 10 seconds to Western Tempo’s number two, Dom James, and ensure anchorman Kurt Taylor (16:05) had every chance of at least catching their last man, Pete Molloy, to avenge our Midland defeat.

This left Kurt still some three-quarters of a minute outside the medals in 5th place, and despite that looking an impossible task, he not only collared Molloy but narrowed the gap on the respective silver and bronze medallists, Tonbridge and Highgate, to only 19 seconds at the line.

“With the pre-race favourites Cambridge and Coleridge duly landing the odds, the race was again dominated by Southern area clubs, but we can be well satisfied that we are right in the mix with the best of them now — including our recent arch rivals Tonbridge and Highgate,” concluded team coordinator Jack Millar, who, like Kurt, said it was the best position either of them had managed in the event.

Meanwhile, though obviously further back, one of the strongest B teams we have fielded in the event matched the A team’s 4th place among the B teams that qualified to take part — behind champions C&C and top Northern clubs Leeds City and Salford, whose A teams surprisingly only just made the top ten overall.

Joe Morrow (16:28), who had only recently returned from his honeymoon and was content to run the opening stage for the second team, gave them a great start by finishing only just outside the top 20 of the 80 qualified teams.

Next up, it was particularly heartening to have Tim Lefroy (16:57) back in action after the injury problems he has suffered over the past two years, and he did remarkably well to also break 17 minutes and keep the team well inside the top 30.

While Lee Gawler (18:07) and Aled Anderson (18:16) were unable to quite sustain the same momentum, Johnny Thewlis (17:38), who was just outside the top 40 when he took over on the penultimate stage, made up three places, and anchor runner Alex Stewart (16:57), who actually ran faster than he had at the Midlands, gained another four to finish just inside the top half of the select field in 35th position.

In all, another successful day — and one highlighted by our ladies’ team taking the silver medals in the women’s championship. Our congratulations from all of us on the men’s team, and a plea now that you have proved what you can do together to keep supporting the major area and national championship events.

-Mike Down