Sunday 5th April, The Open University, Milton Keynes.
In near perfect conditions at The Open University in Milton Keynes the men’s team finished in 22nd position and qualified for the National Road Relays for the 5th year in succession and the Women finished an impressive 10th in their first outing in this competition for many years.
The format in the men’s race was 6 long legs of 7.98k and 6 short legs of 5.5k alternating long followed by short. The fastest long leg from the Brighton team and by any Sussex runner came from Kev Mason with 25:47. Kev proved last weekend that he was in great shape by taking over 30 seconds off his 10k time to record 32:01 at the Eastleigh 10k. The fastest short leg of the day was run by Dave Boyce on leg 2 with 18:17. Although there were impressive runs throughout the team to gain a qualification position, another notable performances came from M50 athlete John Lowden who in the absence of Nigel Gates stepped up to run a long leg in a time of 28:17.
Under the guidance of the new women’s team manager Tom Ulliott, the women were required to run 6 short legs of 5.5k. Jeanette Kenneally had the competitive first leg and ran 21:55 to bring the team back in 24th. Katy Moore on second leg was the fastest Brighton woman of the day with 20:04 lifting the team up to 10th. There was a brief spell outside the top ten as Julia Downes and Laura Lambourne ran 21:49 and 23:54 respectively. It was a last minute call up for Laura who stepped in to replace an injured athlete. Fiona Powell on leg 5 brought the team back inside the top 10 with 20:45 and Grace Geilinger held this position with 22:10.
Results are on the mkac website.
Next race for the Brighton Men and Women’s teams is the Sussex Road Relays on Saturday 11th April. On the 18th April the men will be contesting the National 12 stage Road Relay Championships at Sutton Park Birmingham.