All good at Aldershot

A record two senior men's teams in the top eight, and silver medals for the U13 Boys at the Southern Road Relay Championships!

Also posting the fastest final leg of the day in the U15 Girls event was Isabella Harrison who made up thirteen places to help her team-mates Ava McAndie and Otelia Garcia-Davis to fifth place. All six will be in action again as the Club fields 16 teams of youngsters from U13-U17 in the Bruce Judd County Cross Country Relays at Stoke Park on 7 October.

In the Senior Men's competition at Aldershot, above and beyond the quest for medals the goal was to finish teams in the top 25 in order to qualify for the National Championships which also take place today in Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield.

For HW the mission was to better last year's result, in which the A and B teams qualified in 6th and 17th. Even with a few of the usual suspects missing, coaches and team managers Ben Noad and Keith Scofield were made to agonise over the team selection given the wealth of talent available, professing themselves fully prepared for at least one B team runner to show they should have been in the A team! 

And so the scene was set for a monumental tussle over the first two legs, as the teams were virtually neck and neck, the A team only stretching out towards the end to finish in 6th, with the B team in 8th (and first B team home) – an all-time best for the Club.

On the first leg for the A team Charlie Wyllie came in 19th in 18:24 with Ed Mallett for the B team chasing him down a mere two seconds behind. As Charlie Eastaugh took over from his namesake for the A team, and Henry Silverstein set off for the B team, the real entertainment began as the two spurred each other on, racing virtually neck and neck for most of the two laps.

With less than a kilometre to go Henry moved ahead, but in the end experience triumphed over youth as Charlie called on his famous fast finish to surge through in 18:21, dizzy with exhaustion, while an equally spent but elated Henry finished a sliver behind in 18:23 declaring the race his best ever, as the pair realised that they had galvanised each other into 10th and 11th positions.

Below: the effort of racing each almost neck and neck over leg 2 tells on the faces of Charlie Eastaugh (just finishing ahead for the A team) and under 23 Henry Silverstein. Photo by Mark Hookway.

If the Charlie and Henry show was the most entertaining of the day Jonny Cornish's leg 3 for the A team was the fastest and most impressive, given that he had GB international Stuart McCallum chasing him down for the B team. Since Stuart has been returning to fitness after injury, Ben and Keith played safe by selecting him for the B team, but were ready to be proved wrong. And so they were. As Jonny came home in 17:51 Stuart posted 18:05 in pursuit to move the teams up to 6th and 7th. 

Above left: Jonny Cornish on the fastest HW leg of the day, pursued by Stuart McCallum staking his claim for the A team at the Nationals. Thanks again to Mark Hookway for the photographs.

Next up for the A team was GB marathon and ultra-runner Alex Milne, who has been working on his speed over shorter distances since moving back to London from Monaco where he was teaching. Alex consolidated sixth place for the A team in 18:26 to hand over to Dan Cliffe (with Tom Jervis, also making a hugely popular comeback following injury, finishing in eighth in 18:44 for the B team). Dan matched Alex Milne's time, but on a talent-loaded leg finished in seventh, with the new men's cross country captain James Stockings one place behind for the B team in 19:13.  

On the final A-leg George Mallett was able to pass the final Bedford and County runner to secure sixth place and with no chance to close the gap to fifth he finished in 18:52, as Eoin Brady kept the B team in a historic eighth position, beaten only by the A teams of six other clubs. The C team of Oli Carrington, Sam Todd, Alex Sutton, Jamie Bannister, George Longworth and Joe Clark were 47th, and the D team (Finn Johnson, Howell Harrod, Dave Grima, Simon Wade, Rob Tuer and Richard Jones) were 68th; with Matt De Freitas, Austin Hall, James Hamilton and Pete Clarke turning out for the incomplete E team which finished in 96th.

And so the road show moves on to Sutton Coldfield, with yet another target: the A team to finish in the top eight (9th last year) and the B team in the top 20 (the recent best was 21st in 2012). And will the Club record leg of 17:23 set by Jonny Cornish last year still be intact this evening?

Full results

Below: some of the Senior Men's team after a great day's racing in Aldershot.