Results confusion won’t stop PANVAC heading to the Brits

Conflicting sets of results left Peterborough and Nene Valley AC in limbo after they initially thought they had finished 24th in Sunday’s South of England 12 Stage Road Relay.

With the first 25 teams heading to Sutton Coldfield on April 9 for the British Road Relays, the club received an invitation based on the provisional results which had been published on Sunday evening.

Confusion reigned when a later second set of provisional results placed PANVAC down in 27th and outside the qualifying spots.

However, with an official invitation already received, based on the first set of results, PANVAC are preparing to send a team to the West Midlands on the day.

The dynamic dozen, who had an age range of well over 30 years, included six veterans, three of whom are in their 50s.

The class of the ageing trio showed as Sean Beard, Dave Knighton, who will be 60 this year, and Dave Neal ran the last three short legs and didn’t drop a place.

The 12 stages alternated between six legs of 8.66km and six legs of 5km.

Beard clocked 19:03, Neal 19.17 and Knighton 20.06 in their 5km legs.

All three have a good pedigree from their younger days, especially Dave Neal who ran a 13.45 5,000m back in 1992 when serving as a Royal Marine.

Neal was coached at the time by Gordon Pirie who won a 1956 Olympic 5,000m silver medal and also helped design the first Adidas running shoe.

Stuart Haw was the quickest short leg runner, clocking 15.31 on the second leg while Michael Major with 16.36 and Simon Northcott in 18.00 both ran well.

The long leg runners were all within a couple of minutes of each other.

Phil Martin set the ball rolling with a 28.30 leg followed by Alex Gibb who ran his stage in 28.10.

Tesfay Teweled and Simon Fell were only 25 seconds apart on the third and fourth long legs with Teweled getting round in 29.49 to Fell’s 30.12.

Luke Brown ran a speedy 28.44 on the fifth long leg with

Nathan Bunting getting round in 29.04.

Brothers Isaac and Noah Fell both took part in a youngsters 5km race which accompanied the road relay at Milton Keynes.

The PANVAC siblings both ran well and Noah placed 13th in the under 15 race in a time of 20.24 while Isaac clocked 18.20 for 17th spot in the under17 race.

Bushfield Jogger Brian Corleys clocked 1:15 56 for third place in the half marathon at Sunday’s Bedford Festival of Running.

Corleys was joined at the event by three Peterborough & Nene Valley AC athletes, including James Sadlier who finished fourth in the 20-mile race with a time of 2:05.15.

Elisabeth Sennit-Clough placed 13th in 2:33.00 while her husband Tim Clough finished 17th in 2:41.01.

PANVAC’S Barry Warne also raced at the weekend, finishing as second over 60 in the Serpentine 5k at London’s Hyde Park.

Warne ran his quickest 5km time of the year, crossing the line in a time of 20.52.

Sean Beard was in good form for Peterborough & Nene Valley