With anticipation building for the Midland 4 Stage Road Relay on Saturday, Bristol & West have filled three teams as we look to continue our recent success in the event. With 2nd place in 2015, 3rd in 2017, 2nd in 2018 and 4th in 2019, it will be exciting to see how the class of 2021 fare on the paths at Sutton Park.
As it stands, our teams are:
Team A: Kate Mactear, Natalie Bretherton, Annie Carroll, Elaina Gard
Team B: Lucy Wallace, Clare Jolliffe, Liz Sanigar, Danni Sinclair
Team C: Alice Watson, Emma Jolliffe, Hannah Dyer, Anna Ford
Our teams come into the relays after a successful summer full of racing and PBs.
Kate was one of a few B&W women selected for the On Bristol Track Club Elite 5k in May, running a new PB of 17:23, only to better this in the June South West PB Series, running 17:21. Club treasurer Natalie has had a limited summer of racing, but goes into the Autumn armed with a 2:18 800m, 4:40 1500m and an impressive 5:10 clocking in the On x BTC Echo Mile under the streets of Bath. Balancing training with military courses, Annie approaches the relays in form after setting a 4:51 1500m PB, 17:49 5k PB and last week ran the second fastest time of the day at the Army Inter-Corps cross-country, helping her AMS team take the overall title. The fourth amigo in our first team, Elaina has successfully recovered from injury and, in between nearly tempting us all to try wild swimming, returned to racing at the Swansea 10k, crossing the line in 41:58.
In our second team, Lucy has raced exclusively over the 1500m and secured a SB of 4:55.9, a 3rd place in the NAL and 4th place in the W35 1500m at the British Masters Champs. Clare has raced everything from 1500 to 10k, with highlights including an England vest at the Kew Gardens 10k and a 3rd place in the NAL 1500m. Liz is one of many B&W athletes to exploit the South West PB Series, racing to a 5k PB of 18:56 in the August event and will be joined in the team by U20 Danni. Danni has embraced the restart of track meets, racing the 400m, 800m and 1500m, including an impressive 2:20 clocking in the 800m and 4:54 in the 1500m.
For our third team, highlights include Aliceâs 66.3 400m at the Midland League, Hannah and Annaâs breakthroughs at the return of Parkrun â improving their PBs by over 70 and 100s respectively â and Emmaâs new 3000m PB at the Midland League.
We hope all our athletes have great races and can travel south on Saturday evening knowing they gave it their all â good luck!