The Brighton & Hove men’s team outperformed expectations with an excellent 9th place at the Southern 12-stage Road Relays in Milton Keynes on Sunday. Notably, B&H were the only Sussex team to field a team this year, thanks in no small part to the influencing skills of team manager, Howard Bristow. It is also testament to the club’s growing strength in depth that the team was able to achieve a top ten finish despite the absence of a number of key runners. Indeed this was a true team performance, with strong runs from everyone across the board.
Howard delivered a superb opening “long leg” of 24.21 around the 7.7k circuit – 19th fastest of the day overall – before handing over to short leg specialist Ian Crowe-Wright in 6th place. Ian in turn produced the 25th fastest of the day’s short legs (16.13) to keep B&H right in contention in 7th, with Phil Caine confirming his recent progress on leg 3 with an excellent 25.28 for 9th. The two Davids were up next, with Boyce breaking his marathon training for a 17.04 short leg in 10th, and Benton running a solid 26.41 long leg to hold 12th. Niall Robinson put a disrupted winter behind him to keep the team in the mix on leg six with 17.36 for 13th, allowing Kev Rojas to steal back 6 places on leg seven for 7th overall in 25.07 (done as part of a 22 mile marathon training run!).
Andy Donno again showed how much he enjoys the Relays with a 16.32 short leg to hold 8th, with long-term lover of the Relays, Matt Bristow keeping the team in 9th in 27.16. Ash Witcomb stole back a place with a 17.07 short leg, to hand over to the team’s second Vet, Graham Godden, who delivered a tremendous 26.58 for 9th. The final Glory Leg was left to Zared Hale, who achieved the sought-after top 10 finish in 16.57, captured for eternity by Howard’s camera (see attached).
Well done to everyone for a superb team performance and a great day out in the sunshine.