Havering teams scoop medal haul at Road Relay Champs
HAVERING Athletics Club senior teams won gold, silver and bronze at the Essex & Suffolk Road Relay Championships as the effects of Storm Kathleen made life difficult for the runners and did their best to disrupt proceedings at a very windy Colchester Leisure Park.
The Senior Men’s team reclaimed the trophy, which they won in 2022 and just missed out on last year, coming home over a minute in front of runners up Ilford.
Sam Atkins led off with his 15 minutes 16 seconds leg to hand over to James Stewart who posted the same time to give the Havering team a narrow lead over their Essex rivals.
Ben Davis’ leg took just 14:47 to further extend the lead and James Connor’s even faster anchor of 14:38 as the fastest of the quartet to bring home gold and the team trophy.
After some late dropouts, the second senior team only had two runners and one of those Kieran O’Hara ran a great race and his 14:48 clocking was the second fastest of all the Havering runners and the other Alex Friend had a good run with his 16:08 clocking.
The Vet 40 Men’s team of claimed the silver medal for the second year thanks to James Blogg (16:20), Rob Warner (15:30) and Ian Anthony (18:17) with Warner running the fastest leg in the Vets race.
The Vet 50 Men’s team of Martin Chester (17:37), Matt Bland (17:38) and Steve Rand (18:16) were not to be outdone and took the bronze medal and the Vet 50 B team of Steve Walker (19:21), Gary Atkins (18:23) and Roy James (20:34) also did well while coach Russ Middleton (20:29) was the sole C team representative for the club.
Havering athletes got their summer season underway as the club hosted their annual curtain raising event the Spring Warm Up Open at Hornchurch as over 200 athletes, half of them from the home club, competed in the very gusty conditions which made life difficult.
Heptathlete Ruby Tillson stepped up to the Under 20 ranks in style and her winning 100m hurdles debut time of 14.31s was the second best ever by a club U20 Women and fourth best on record by a club female.
Tillson also improved her long jump best in a competition which saw Alicia Fairmaner, who recently transferred from Chelmsford, post a new long jump best of 5.61m, an English Schools National Selection Standard, to go fourth on the club all-time Under 17 rankings.
Fairmaner was also the fastest 100m sprinter on show posting another career best, despite the headwind.
National Indoor Under 17 Men’s 60m sprint medallist Joel Ajayi was a class apart in the men’s 100m crossing the line with the clock stopped at 11.00s, only just outside his best despite the headwind, and this summer he looks likely to challenge the club Under 17 best of 10.73s dating from 2006.
The club’s recent recruitment in the young athlete ranks was reflected in the Under 13 age group as the club had 10 competitors in the Under 13 girls 100m, nine in the 800m in the same age group and eight in the Under 13s boys’ 800m.