TVH Ladies win bronze Southern medals at the National Relays

On Saturday 14th April TVH’s team of six placed a fantastic 6th English club (7th overall) in the National 6 Stage Road Relays at Sutton Park. The race also doubled up as the South of England Road Relay Championships due to the bad weather cancellation last month.

With not a cloud in sight and the sun shining, the ladies quietly hoped that they would be taking home a South of England medal. But with stiff competition from the likes of Cambridge and Coleridge, Highgate and Southampton this would be no walk in the park. Fortunately, a combination of outstanding and solid performances ensured the bronze medal was theirs.

The first outstanding performance came from Ann-Marie McGlynn on leg 1, who negotiated the gruelling 5.4 mile course with style. Ann-Marie, who is in fine form, broke away from the pack along the Jamboree stone ‘out and back’ section, storming home in a clear first place ahead of some other class international athletes. Ann-Marie clocked the third fastest long leg time of the day … what a start! However, not wanting to be outdone, marathon specialist Tracy Barlow produced the other outstanding performance for the team. With TVH having slipped down to 12th there were people to catch, but it was a tall order for Tracy to get the team back into contention. She flew round leg 4 (the second long leg), propelling the team back up to 5th overall and in the process produced the quickest time of the day with an outstanding 29.07, boding well for her marathon exertions next weekend! Tracy was awarded a nice shiny medal for her efforts.

Short legs (3.2 miles) were covered by Katie Olding (leg 2), Lisa da Silva (leg 3), Stephanie Ainley (leg 5) and Sarah Johnson (leg 6). All put in solid performances, with Sarah running the quickest of the four with a fabulous 18.45.

A huge well done to the ladies on their South of England road relay third place and placing in the top 6 in England!