Brighton & Hove AC vet athletes out in force at Coombes Farm!

First race of the day was the V50 and upwards men and here we had no less that 5 athletes competing to make the scoring team of 3.  Pride of place went to John Lowden, who although racing as a V60 individually, he stepped down an age group to represent the V50 team as we didn’t have a scoring trio in the V60 category.  John surpassed himself with an excellent run of 31:47 to finish in 8th place overall, and first V60, so winning individual gold, and also leading our V50 trio to team bronze,  John being backed up by Keith Newton, just 2 months shy of his 60th birthday who crossed the line 14th in 33:01 and Paul Prosser 18th in 33:25.  Such was the quality of our V50 runners we also had Duncan Curtis and Richard Rutter just 16 and 34 seconds behind Paul, in 19th and 21st place, so great runs from them too but unfortunately they turned out to be the 2 athletes out of our 19 who ran on the day to not bag a medal!!

Next race was the ladies race, where all age groups ran together.  In this we had a scoring trio in the V35, V45 AND V55 age categories, although for the V35s we had two ladies stepping down age groups to make a complete team.  I’m delighted to say that the strategy of dropping age groups paid off as all 3 of our teams won medals.  The V35 team were a solid 3rd, a great result given we had V45 Suzanne Jarrett and V55 Tamsin Shasha in the trio.  Gill Bickle was our first scorer here in 9th place with a time of 35:19, Suzanne was next in 13th place 38:34 and then Tamsin 17th in 42:02.

For the V45 ladies, we had a better team result with them placing 2nd, so silver medals.  These being led home by Paula Blackledge 4th in 33:35, Manjula Moon 14th in 38:05 and Jeanette Kenneally 15th in 38:37

In the ladies V55 and upwards category we had another bronze medal team performance, this time the team being led by Gail Nerurkar, 4th in 37:27, Judith Carder had one of her best races in recent years with an excellent 7th place and 2nd V65, so individual V65 silver with a time of 38:55.  The medal winning team being closed off with a 14th place for Cathy Ulliott.  One of the disadvantages of being married to the team manager meant that Cathy was ‘encouraged’ to run on the day despite lacking recent form and race fitness, but it did mean we came away with a team medal!!

Finally on the day were the V40 men and our best team performance with an excellent team gold for our foursome of Craig Halsey, 2nd, so individual silver, in a time of 26:00, Howard Bristow 8th in 28:00, Matt Bristow 14th in 28:40 and Louis Taub 15th in 29:01