Athletics Ewan stars as he helps England strike gold in Dublin
I am really happy with my run and to be part of the winning England team
TEAM gold for Ewan Sparey, on his international debut for England, and another silver for the senior men at the Midland Counties 12-Stage Road Relays represented another successful weekend for Bristol & West AC.
Just a week after winning his place in the England team for the British & Irish Schools’ Cross Country Championships in Dublin, Sparey showed he has a bigrace mentality by finishing fifth overall and third England scorer – he had finished sixth in the qualifying the previous week.
“My plan was to stay behind the front pack for the first two laps as it was very windy and preserve my energy until the last lap and go for it,” said Sparey.
“I think I did that well being able to stay there decently comfortably until the last 500 metres when I was able to make a surge and make up some places to secure fifth position, which I am very happy about.
“It was definitely an improvement on the week before and I am really happy with my run and to be part of the winning England team.”
Sparey, who is coached by Rob Draper, will now switch his focus to triathlon while also keeping an eye on the summer track season when he will concentrate upon the 800m and attempt to qualify for the English Schools’ Championships.
In years to come, Sparey will hopefully progress into the senior men’s squad and become part of the club’s proud tradition in the Midland Counties 12-Stage Road Relay Championships.
Four wins on the bounce in the immediate pre-pandemic years was the high point and since then there has been a second place – last year a medal went missing after a mix-up at the handover – and it was silver again at the weekend.
Team manager Mike Down said: “Admittedly, it was not the perfect result, but as we were using it too as a trial for the National Championship race in two weeks’ time, it provided the tactical information the team management needed for selection purposes as we were missing several of our first-choice runners who will strengthen our squad for the blue riband event of the road racing year on April 6.
“That is not to say that we did not make a race of it from start to finish, but despite a blistering anchor leg by our cross country star Jack Millar we were always on the back foot and never really able to match the blazing pace Western Tempo had set after the first of the four long stages.”
A sizzling run by Max Davis on stage four, in which he recorded the third fastest time of the day with 26mins 06secs, brought B&W up to second where they stayed for the remainder of the race.
Other impressive short stages came from Dan Studley, Hugh Brashaw and Ben Robinson, who all broke 16 minutes.
Again, injuries and unavailability disrupted the women’s team so the six who turned up did well to finish fourth, with Amy Hammersley and Marie Monahan clocking the fastest long and short stage times, respectively.
Senior men: 1 Western Tempo 3:54.23; 2 Bristol & West AC 3:55:31 (Felix McGrath (6) 26:57, Naphtali Moulton (4) 27:07, Jonathan Thewlis (4) 27:27, Max Davis (2) 26:06, Stephen Kerfoot (2) 16:42, Daniel Studley (2) 15:19, Adam Wilson (2) 17:04, Owain Jones (2) 16:09, Hugh Brashaw (2) 15:55, Robert Stewart (2) 16:17, Ben Robinson (2) 15:32, Jack Millar (2) 14:56); 3 Birmingham Running Athletics & Triathlon 4:02.35.
17: Bristol & West AB ‘B’ 4:17:56 (Aled Anderson (24) 28:54, Adam Stokes (18) 29:02, Andrew Drake (19) 30:08, Alex Hobley (19) 30:33, Mathew Davies (19) 17:41, Luke Burgess (18) 17:06, Lee Gawler (18) 17:44, Harvey Hancock (17) 16:57, Joe Connors (18) 17:07, Philip Parry (17) 18:28, Fraser Roach (16) 16:34, Hamish Wyatt (17) 17:42).
Senior women: 1 Western Tempo 2:15:56; 2 Team Bath AC 2:16:38; 3 Birchfield Harriers 2:18:40; 4 Bristol & West AC 2:26.30 (Amy Hammersley (6) 32:04, Clare Jolliffe (8) 20:35, Hannah Green (5) 33:20, Sarah Everitt (6) 20:42, Marie Monaghan (4) 19:51, Hannah Pollak (4) 19:58).
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