Revamped team delivers impressive run
IT WAS a much-changed Team Bath AC squad that lined up for the National Six Stage Road Relays at Sutton Park, Birmingham.
Team manager Dave Coales was able to call upon both Alex Carter and Aaron Pritchard, who both missed the Midlands Championships two weeks earlier, to strengthen the squad but on the debit side he lost the services of Alex Parsons and Dan Jones, who is recovering from his London Marathon exploits.
Indeed, only Matt Wells and Elliot Avis survived from the side that qualified for the nationals and they both raised their game significantly to improve upon their personal times, which is great credit to them and all their team manager can ask.
Carter and Pritchard both knew the tricky course well and that was reflected in the way they attacked the race.
Carter took on the responsibility on running the super-competitive stage one and he responded with a sterling effort to bring the team back in 63rd clocking a time of 18mins 59secs – the fastest by a Team Bath athlete on the day.
That set up Pritchard nicely and he gained six places with a time of 19:13 on stage two to hand over to Aidan Daniel.
For Daniel it was his debut at Sutton Park and he coped with the pressure admirably to record a time of 20 minutes exactly and leave Team Bath 59th at the half-way point of the event.
Avis consolidated that before former Olympic rower Wells gained six places with a battling run on stage five. Veteran Steve Rose, who turns 50 later this year, had stepped forward to run stage six after the loss of Parsons and Jones and according to Coales he ‘turned back the years’ to bring Team Bath to the finish line in under two hours for 56th place out of 74 finishers.
National Six Stage Road Relays at Sutton Park, Birmingham, senior men 6 x 5.88 km: 1 Aldershot Farham & District 1.42.44; 2 Leeds City 1:43.47; 3 Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers 1:44.06; 9 Bristol & West AC 1:47.34; 56 Team Bath AC 1.59.16 (Alex Carter (63) 18.59; Aaron Pritchard (57) 19.13; Aidan Daniel (5) 20.00; Elliott Avis (59) 19.53; Matt Wells (53) 19.49; Steve Rose (57) 21.22).
Team Bath’s James Taylor smashed his five-year old personal best in the Manchester marathon on Sunday.
Taylor went into the race with a lifetime best of 3hrs 12mins 59secs from the 2016 Manchester event but since then hasn’t tackled the classic 26.2 miles challenge.
And while the stats show Taylor has raced little over the past few years he is clearly in good shape as he went sub-three hours for the first time with 2:58.36 for 62nd place overall.
Clubmate and now veteran over 55 Mark Mackintosh also went under three hours again with 2:59.03 but that
is almost ten minutes off his lifetime best of 2:49.52 set in 2017.
Also from Team Bath and on what appears to have been his debut at the distance over 50 vet Paul Carter ran 3:28.10 while over 55 vet Nigel Osborne clocked 4:46.45.
Rob Eaton opted for the gruelling off-road Exe to the Axe multi-terrain race along the east Devon coastline on Sunday and finished a very creditable fourth in a time of 3hrs 03mins 25secs . The race was won by Exmouth Harrier Sam Kelly in 2:40.03.
The athletics coverage in the Chron is sponsored by Running Bath