TVH Men Finish in Top 20 at the Southern Road Relays and Qualify for Nationals

On Sunday the Valley men’s senior and veteran teams travelled to Aldershot for the Southern Road Relay Championships. As in previous years the race venue was Rushmoor Arena and the race was hosted by Aldershot, Farnham & District AC.  This  year’s race saw 4 Valley men make their debut in the senior team and they all ran well to see the A team finish in 17th place out of a total of 72 finishing teams.

Full versions of the men’s results are available using the links below:

Southern 6 Stage Road Relay Senior Men Results 2014.

Southern 6 Stage Road Relay Veteran Men Results 2014

It was a major improvement on last year’s race, when illness hit the team and last minute changes left them in 35th place. Sunday’s finish inside the top 25 teams also ensured qualification through to the National Road Relay Championships in Birmingham on Saturday October 4th.

A further 3 Valley men made their debut in the veteran team, which saw the V40 A team also finish in the top 20 in 18th place and the V40 B team finish in 39th place out of a total of 59 finishing teams.

For Sunday’s relays the Valley senior men were competing in the 6 Stage Senior Southern Road Relay, with teams consisting of 6 men each racing over a 2 lap 6km course..

The Valley veteran men were competing in the 4 Stage Veteran Southern Road Relay, with teams consisting of 4 men each racing over the same 2 lap 6km course.

The 2 lap course at Rushmoor Arena was run over footpaths and private roads around the woods surrounding the start and finish area, mostly flat and fast, with a short hill halfway round and a long hill climb towards the start and finish of each lap.

Race conditions were good, with the weather staying dry and some warm autumn sunshine accompanied by a mild breeze.

n the senior men’s race, Mohamud Aadan led the team off on 1st leg, and he gave the team a great start to come home in 2nd place, in a time of 18m 16s that proved to be the fastest leg for the Valley men and also the 9th fastest leg in the race overall.

Making his road relay debut on 2nd leg was Mohamed Jebari-el-Majdoub (or MoJo to his team mates!) and he recorded a good time of 19m 23s to finish his leg in 9th place.

On 3rd leg and another making his debut in this race was Mark Haskett, who having travelled down from Scotland on the day had to work hard to finish in a time of 20m 10s in 17th place.

Chris Smith stepped up for 4th leg and despite having been injured all summer managed to put his great road relay experience to good use to match his time from last year and finish in 19m 09s and move up to 16th place.

The 5th leg man was Myles Edwards, the second Scot in the Valley team and he ran a perfectly judged race which gave him a very good time of 19m 10s to put the team up in 14th place.

The honour of 6th and final leg fell to U20 runner Robert Vallance, the only junior athlete on the team, and he had to dig deep to fight off a number of close challengers before finishing in a time of 21m 35s to bring the team home to finish the race in 17th place out of 72 finishing teams.

The Valley senior men also had a partial B team, with Fahad Abdi recording a time of 23m 30s after a summer of injury, Scott Brewer made his debut in a Valley vest and did well to complete the race in a time of 26m 38s, while Valley team manager Manuel Da Silva closed the team in 22m 34s.

In the veteran men’s race, the Valley had 2 V40 teams competing in the 4 Stage Road Relay race over the same course and distance as the senior men.

For the A team, the quartet of Steve Norris, Andrew Mitchell, Phil Wetton and Greg Bennett did well to finish in 18th place out of 59 teams in the overall veteran race and in 13th place out of 32 teams in the V40 race.

Steve Norris made a good start to the race and Greg Bennett had a good race debut, while Andrew Mitchell made an impressive road relay debut to record a time of 20m 54s, the fastest time for the Valley veterans and the 17th fastest V40 time in the race overall.

The B team of Richard Hooley, Mike Wilson, John Husbands and Jason Sewards aquitted themselves well to finish in 39th place out of 59 teams in the overall veteran race and in 25th place out of 32 teams in the V40 race.

Jason Sewards enjoyed his road relay debut and both Mike Wilson and Richard Hooley were on form to record faster times than last year’s race.

To conclude the days racing, there was the business of deciding the men’s winner of the Valley’s own Southern Road Relay Trophy for the fastest handicap leg on the day.

It was a very close competition, with just 3 seconds separating the top 3 men!

Congratulations and the trophy go to Chris Smith, who won with a handicap time of 17m 39s.

Myles Edwards was a very close 2nd in 17m 40s and Mike Wilson was 3rd just 2s behind in 17m 42s.

It was a good day all round for the Valley men, well done to everyone who took part and good luck to the senior team who can now look forward to competing in the National 6 Stage Road Relay Championships at Birmingham in 2 weeks.

Men’s Southern 6 Stage Road Relay Results, 21-09-14.

17  TVH – Senior Men – A Team                        1:57:43

1 Mohamud Aadan                  18:16        2          18:16

2 Mohamed Jebari-el-Majdoub19:23       9          37:39

3 Mark Haskett                       20:10        17        57:49

4 Chris Smith                           19:09        16     1:16:58

5 Myles Edwards                         19:10   14     1:36:08

6 Robert Vallance                         21:35   17     1:57:43

Incomplete Team  TVH – Senior Men – B Team 1:12:42

Fahad Abdi                              23:30        83           23:30

Scott Brewer                            26:38        81           50:08

Manuel Da Silva                      22:34        78        1:12:42

72 Finishing Teams

18  TVH – V40 Men – A Team                             1:29:59

Steve Norris                             21:30        17        21:30

Andrew Mitchell                     20:54        8          42:24

Philip Wetton                          24:23        17     1:06:47

Greg Bennett                           23:12        18     1:29:59

39  TVH – V40 Men – B Team                              1:37:59

Richard Hooley                       23:23        37        23:23

Mike Wilson                            23:12        37        46:35

John Husbands                        25:40        38     1:12:15

Jason Sewards                         25:44        41     1:37:59

59 Finishing Teams

Men’s Southern 6 Stage Road Relay Handicap Cup Results.

1     Chris Smith             17m 39s

2     Myles Edwards                     17m 40s

3     Mike Wilson                       17m 42s

4     Richard Hooley                    17m 53s

5     Greg Bennett                        17m 57s

6     Andrew Mitchell                   18m 04s

7     Jason Sewards                      18m 14s

8     Mohamud Aadan                  18m 16s

9     Fahad Abdi              18m 30s

10   Mo Jo                                 18m 33s

11   Manuel Da Silva                   18m 34s

12   Steve Norris             18m 40s

12   John Husbands                     18m 40s

14   Phil Wetton             18m 53s

15   Robert Vallance                    19m 05s

16   Mark Haskett                        19m 10s

17   Scott Brewer                        21m 38s