South of England CC Champs: Seniors
Our senior teams struggled to make a big impression in Saturday's South of England CC Championships. Our women's team finished 10th and our men 11th. Our men were 8th in the 12-to-score competition, again winning the Essex Cup, and we successfully closed 3 teams of 6. The men's race was marred by farcical start line organisation and, although Hywel Care performed splendidly to finish 28th after being one of those who missed the start, many were frustrated and angered by the chaos.
We fielded a solid team in the women's 6K event, but without the sort of big-hitters that take you high in the team competition. Lauren Stewart (49) and Kat Gundersen (50) were closely matched for much of the race and ended up separated by just 2 seconds. Stewart had finished 31 and 32 in her previous two Southerns, while Gundersen was 38th in 2010, so neither woman is firing on all cylinders. Loyal team members Bernie Pritchett (76) and Diana Kennedy (84) made up the scoring quartet. Both were having decent runs, particularly Pritchett, until Kennedy's legs went in the last 400m and athletes started to flow past her.
10th team in the race reflects where the team currently are. Our Met League rivals Serpentine (2nd) and Shaftesbury (4th) merit congratulations, while we just managed to pip Highgate (11th). Of Essex clubs, Chelmsford were 19th, Eton Manor 40th, Ilford 53rd and Springfield Striders 55th.
Further down the field, Kavita Solder delivered a decent result, being 225th of the 381 finishers and around a minute up on Jenny Thomas (248), whose result was also par to form. Team manager Alex Wardle (330) is going through a bad patch and was around 100 places down on 2010.
For our men in their 15K event, nothing went right. We lost Dave Wardle (13th last year) to flu on Thursday and potential top 35 man Daniel Agustus just 30 minutes before the gun when he went over on an old ankle injury while warming up. Both said they were "gutted" and our medal chances receded before our eyes. Then, as our spectators waited around lap 1 to cheer our men on, we were horrified to see them much further back than expected. What had happened?
What had happened was as follows. At the start line they were required to funnel into a tent occupied by an airport-style zig-zag traffic flow system at the end of which officials "checked" (??) their ankle chips. However, despite heading to the start at what seemed to be a reasonable time, most of the squad got caught in a huge traffic jam which seemed not to be moving. It was a bitterly cold day yet many queued for minutes outside the tent. Hundreds of athletes were involved. And then the gun fired, with no flexibility from "officialdom" despite the fact that it was completely apparent that maybe 1/3 of the field [there were 887 finishers] was not on the start line. Those outside the tent who had been queueing in the freezing cold were actually advantaged at this point because in their desperation they climbed the fence to join the back of the race, not knowing whether this would disqualify them or not, i.e. whether their chips had to be "registered" within the tent or not. As it turned out, their results were published along with all the rest, suggesting that whatever was happening within the tent was irrelevant. Those inside the tent were worst off, as they were delayed longer in emerging.Our team manager will certainly be writing, forcefully, to the South of England AA to complain about this incompetent organisation. Even normally placid athletes were still furious at the end of the race about the farce which had spoiled their race. Widespread online comment and dissatisfaction has been expressed since the race.
To the race itself. Hywel Care in particular, who had been inside the tent, ran tremendously well to work his way through the pack, often taking a less-than-ideal route in his bid to overtake. He ended up 26th, 30 seconds down on Essex athlete Adam Hickey, who has recently been selected to run CC for England and had been similarly disadvantaged. (Essex champion Mark Sanford of Basildon finished 37th). Bertie Powell, who had climbed the fence and afterwards called the start organisation "disgraceful", also ran an excellent race, undoubtedly his best in a major championship, for 53rd. He launched a spectacular and uncharacteristic sprint down the finishing straight which gained him at least 4 places and suggests there is more in the tank.
Prior to the race, Daniel Agustus had been in pole position for this year's Ken Bray Trophy for winter consistency, but his last-minute injury means that the ultra-resilient Powell now occupies that position. The very fair-play minded Powell was quick to express sympathy for the very likeable and unassuming Agustus, and said he had never wished to exploit an injury in order to lead the coveted ranking.
Next home for us was Ben Hope (94), continuing his comeback from long-term injury. He said he had felt heavy-legged most of the way, but is glad to be back and has no depth of training. In 111th, Stephan Wenk is finding it hard to come to terms with our CC courses, but has 3 more winters in the UK to work on things. Angus Holford (126) ran a perfectly decent race for his current fitness level and is intending to do every race over the coming weeks as he enjoys CC running so much. Our final scorer for the first 7 miles in the main, 6-to-score, competition was Martyn Cryer, who has done less than 200 miles in training since last April. But the length of the course finally exacted its price and he struggled bravely ever-backwards to 159th while Matt Molloy, a complete animal of a triathlete, albeit in the M40 category, surged relentlessly forward with no fears of ever blowing up, to within 17" of Holford and 134th place. Molloy is developing a happy habit of snatching places in our scoring teams.
Team manager Terry McCarthy chose to congratulate other clubs for getting it right on the day, "This is sport. This is why we like it, because it's unpredictable. You've got to hand it to Highgate [bronze], Shaftesbury, Herne Hill and Kent in particular. It was their turn today."
Of the Essex clubs, county champs Chelmsford only closed 4 men, so the nearest clubs to us were Springfield Striders (72), Eton Manor (75), and Harlow Running Club (81).
Cryer was "first of the rest" as we aimed to do as well as possible in the 12-to-score competition where we have been third in recent years. Next in was Harold Wyber (243), whose London Marathon training will surely kick in before long. John Wallis (350) was in Iain Cummings' (355) sights for a long time but Wallis is as tough a competitor as Cummings when fit, and 7 seconds still separated them as they finished our 9th and 10th scorers. Jim Roche, meanwhile, after vying for a scoring 6 place for 5 miles, had had a sore throat earlier in the week and started going backwards and chose to preserve his health by pulling out.
So up into our 11th spot came the dogged CJ Shepherd in 440th, albeit well down on his stated rival Iain Cumming. And anchoring our scoring 12 in 561st was Martin Mack, another good solid regular on our CC circuit. So we finished a reasonable 8th in the 12-to-score and won the Essex Cup as we were the first Essex club to close 12 men. Our second 6 men (B team) finished 44th of 93 completed 6-man teams.
We completed a further 6-man team, too, as 84th team. Alistair Holford (570), Steve Murray (607), Andy Smith (662), Jon Powell (671 - very brave to finish as it was only his 2nd run of the year and he lost 200-300 places after hitting a horrible wall!), Richard Hogg (723) and Tom Spanyol (733). A further two of our guys gallantly made the finish of this iconic and very challenging race: M60 Roger Green (757) and Steve Lambert (819) as we closed a very acceptable total of 20 men despite our sequence of bad luck. We will be back!!
Manager McCarthy said, "It was great to have representation all the way down the field and all credit to anyone with guts enough to get around at Parly Hill. Our colours were again flown with tons of valour this year though results didn't go our way."