South of England Road Relay Championships

There was good Chiltern representation at the SEAA Road Relay Championships at Rushmoor Arena, Aldershot on Saturday. There were teams in all junior age groups, a senior women’s team making their debut, and also for the first time, two senior men’s teams.
 
The weather featured short but heavy showers in the morning for the youngsters, but by early afternoon there was warm sunshine and blue skies for the seniors.

The U13 Boys were the first race away on the undulating 3k circuit and the A team ran well to be 15th, with good runs from Josh Woodward (11.11), Harrison Lawrence (11.54) and Jack Rogers (10.56). On the B team Isaac Brown ran 11.37 on the first leg with Toby Reynolds (12.24) and Zac Taylor (11.58) completing the team that finished 31st. Thomas Cooper ran well for 11.40 in the incomplete C team.
 
The U13 Girls had one complete team that did very well to be 12th, with Emilia Ingham (12.22), Annie-Rose Quantrill (12.33) and Bea Robinson (11.40) all running strongly. Lotti Monnington made her Chiltern debut to run 13.06 in an incomplete B team.
 
Tom Ford led off the U15 Boys team, finishing 9th in 9.47. He was backed up by Charlie Quantrill (10.05) and Thomas Reynolds (10.07), with the team finishing 9th overall. The B team of Max King (10.27), James Henderson (11.23) and Issac McCall (11.41) were 42nd and Jacob McCall ran 11.43 in an incomplete C team.
 
There was one U15 Girls team and the trio of Maya Davis (11.13), Nia Clarke (11.55) and Megan Lockwood (12.05) were a creditable 19th.
 
The biggest squad of the day were the U17 men who had three complete teams out. The A team was also the highest placed Chiltern team of the day in fourth. Alex Hughes led off and had a great run to win leg 1 on an extended 4.6k route with 13.52, the fastest lap of the race. Aidan Suleyman (14.56) and James Holdsworth (15.07) battled hard but were up against top level runners on legs 2 and 3. The B team was 33rd courtesy of Edward Johnson (15.04), Daniel Munn (15.59) and Rory Hilton (16.38), and the C team were 57th: Zach Cleary (17.28), Dylan Rossi (17.32) and Charlie De Sousa (19.03).
 
An excellent result came from the U17 women to be sixth with Emily Ford (17.18), Marlie Nkoane (18.35) and Issy Robinson (17.40) all running well.
 
For the first time a Chiltern Senior Women’s team had been entered but Maddie Hughes unfortunately sustained a knee injury in the lead up, so a full team of four wasn’t possible. However the remaining three did well on the tough 6k course, Frankie Baxter (24.23), Roxie Jones (27.28) and Katie Royals (25.44).
 
Senior Men’s teams have taken part before at Aldershot but this was the first time two full Chiltern teams of six had been assembled. There were solid runs all round from ‘the Green Arrows’ in this top class field, which included some of the UK’s best endurance men. The A team were 36th from over 80 complete teams and finished as the highest placed Bucks team ahead of Milton Keynes in 44th and Wycombe Phoenix in 62nd. The Chiltern B team were a creditable 64th.
 
The A team featured Leon Doran (19.43), Richard Slade (18.53), Harry Cox (20.00), Angus Williams (20.07), Aran Davidson (19.55) and Adam Shute (20.20). The B team was Daire Stack (20.48), Cameron Reid (20.34), James Turner (21.44), James Price (21.44), Jonny Slade (22.03) and Alex Aldred (20.32).
 
There are plans for men’s teams at the SEAA cross country relays at Wormwood Scrubs in October and the National cross country relays at Mansfield in November.