Top 5 Finish for TVH Ladies at the Southern Road Relays

It was a day of ups and downs at Sunday’s SEAA road relay championships in Milton Keynes, but one of the ups was the unexpected 4^th place finish for the women’s A Team in the six stage event.

Lisa da Silva reports: 

With illness, injury and other commitments plaguing the team in the run up to the race, the original hopes of a top five finish seemed to be over. However, that was not that case as the valley ladies ran their socks off in terribly windy and wet conditions … which paid off with a superb 4^th place finish, just 13 seconds shy of the medals.

Siana Jones set the wheels in motion on leg 1 clocking her second ever quickest 5k (plus 53m!) in a superb time of 19.50 to place 24^th out of 45 runners. Siana passed over to Lisa da Silva, who surprised herself with a positive run despite carrying a cold. Lisa picked up 16 places and ran a course PB of 18.07 to hand over in 8^th place (14^th fastest overall – 2^nd fastest on leg 2). Then came the fastest of the six, Scottish international Fiona Thompson, who absolutely blitzed round the undulating course to take the lead and clock the 8^th fastest time of the day (and 2^nd fastest on leg 3). This led to an Athletics Weekly reporter coming over to interview Fiona whilst Joanna Mobed headed out with nobody to catch! Joanna kept her cool and held on well for 3^rd spot in a great time of 20.22 (a course PB for Joanna), with Aldershot Farnham and District now leading and Cambridge and Coleridge in 2nd place. The reigns were then passed to Marie Gorman who showed a promising return to form to keep the team in the top six putting in a strong sub-21 minute performance (20.59). With Belgrave, Herne Hill and Serpentine now in the mix, and Aldershot, Farnham and District’s superstar runner Emelia Gorecka out in the front, it was a tall order for marathon runner Tracy Barlow – how many could she catch? Calm as ever, Tracy set out strong and maintained a great pace throughout clocking an unofficial PB for 5k (plus 53m!) of 17.56 (10^th fastest overall – 2^nd fastest on leg 6) as well as picking off the Serpentine and Herne Hill athletes to place the team in a fabulous 4^th overall. Well done ladies, that was a valiant team effort!

The B team runners also did themselves proud and adapted well to some last minute leg changes. Ironwoman Jess Bass suddenly found herself running leg 1 instead of leg 4.  With little warm up, Jess displayed her usual smile, to place a great 38^th in a time of 22.51. Jess passed over to triathlete Kate Nunn who returned back in 39^th place in a useful time of 22.48, having already cycled a whopping 60 miles in the morning! TVH debutant Sophiane Recalt completed the B team. It was Sophiane’s first ever 5km and she ran competitively in a fine time of 21.23, picking up three positions along the way. We look forward to more runs from Sophiane later in the season! Well done again to the ladies teams on their fine performance.

Women’s Southern 6-Stage Road Relay Results, 29-03-2015

1^th   Aldershot Farnham & D  –  1:49:17
2^nd  Belgrave Harriers ‘A’  –  1:53:12
3^rd  Cambridge & Coleridge  –  1:54:44
4^th  Thames Valley Harriers ‘A’ –  1:54:57

5^th  Serpentine Running Club ‘A’ –  1:55:49

37 Finishing Teams

Incomplete team – Thames Valley Harriers ‘B’