National Service

For a brief moment during the National 12-stage Road Relays at Sutton Coldfield on 15 April the Senior Men's squad asked, 'dare we dream?' Having finished just outside the medals at the Southern Relays a fortnight earlier the A team had high hopes of matching if not bettering the sixth place achieved last year, which was the highest placing since 1973.

The team from the Southerns was necessarily tweaked a little as Jonny Cornish joined an elite group of athletes training at altitude in Font- Romeu in the Pyrenees in the south-west of France,1850m above sea level. Also missing was Dan Cliffe, but in came the in-form and ever-competitive Andrew Penney (who had been unavailable for the Southerns) and there was another hugely popular addition in Ben Toomer, now based in New York, on a visit to London to re-join old comrades for the race and cheer on HW runners in the London Marathon. James Stockings, who would have been a contender for the A team, opted to run in the B team, having barely recovered from a stomach bug that had laid him low the previous week.

Archie Walton led off for the A team in the race which alternates long legs (5.38 miles) and short legs (3.16 miles), handing over in 26th to Charlie Wyllie, who moved up into 16th. Then came a stellar long leg from Andrew Penney (below) who set a new Club course record, notching up the second fastest time over leg 3 to bring the team up to 5th as he handed over to Charle Eastaugh.

That was when the ripple of excitement began to run through the HW camp, amplifying as Charlie (left) rounded the final corner and onto the home/handover straight in third position, having posted the fastest time on leg 4, the 9th fastest short leg of the day and another Club record.

In reality medals were only ever a dream, as the nature of these Championships is the quality and strength in depth of so many of the UK's leading Clubs – this year's teams were peppered with Olympians and international athletes – but the buzz around the course was palpable, and although third place inevitably slipped away, by the halfway stage the team was still in sixth, thanks to long and short legs from Alex Robinson and Oli Carrington.At the Southern Championships it was Aldershot, Farnham & District who chose to put on a show of stunning strength, and while they were in the mix at the front in the early stages, this time it was Kent AC's turn to field a mighty team.

Olympic triathlete Alex Yee ran a showcase of a stage 7, handing over a mere second outside his own course record of 24:57 to keep Kent in first place until leg 10. That course record was exactly matched on leg 9 by fellow Olympian Andy Butchart in the fastest long leg of the day which helped to finally clinch the race for Scottish club Central AC, as Highgate Harriers burst through on the final stage to overtake Kent and take the English title. 

Over the second half of the race in which every leg seemed to be loaded with quality, the HW team hovered between 7th and 10th, eventually coming home as 7th English team (9th overall, since Swansea Harriers finished in 4th).

As a measure of the wealth of talent on display throughout the afternoon, the team's time of 4:17:39 was just 39 seconds outside that achieved last year to finish sixth overall.

Meanwhile the B team, kicked off by U23 Henry Silverstein in 37th made steady progress up to 35th, dipping briefly to 39th until U20 Hector Revill, who had waited patiently to take over on the final stage, enjoyed the benefit of the mass start which brought together all the remaining runners at 4.30pm, to post the fastest short leg for the B team. In doing so he stole another three places to bring the team home in 32nd overall and third B-team behind Highgate and Kent.

Full results (HW results below)

Junior League Openers

In the first Lily B League match of the season at Ewell on 15 April Vivienne Jonczyk and Isabella Harrison wrote their names into second and fourth position respectively on the all time HW U15G 300m list. Vivienne won the A race in a PB of 42.9, with Isabella winning the B race in 44.4. Ava McAndie won the A string 800m in 2:28.8 with Josie Hughes taking the win for the B string in 2:37.9.  Beatrice Eminson won the U13 A-string 800m in 2:40.8, and Freia Harper-Tee was victorious in the U13G 1500m in 5:30.6.

In the sprints there were wins for U15 Gift Aiwekhoe, who clocked 13.3 in her first race over 100m, and U13 Freya McAndie, who took the A string 200m in a PB of 29.8. The U15 and U13 4 x 100m teams were also victorious.

On the field Florrie Foster won the U13G High Jump with 1.30m, while U17 Ariana Shala took the triple jump in a PB of 10.35, backed up by Visne Bariman with a winning jump of 8.95 for the B string.

Overall the team were fourth.

Full results

The following day,16 April, it was the turn of the boys to compete in the Ebbisham League at Kingston.

There were wins for Matthew Wehrle in the U15B 200m in a PB of 24.8 and Thomas Hennigan in the U13B 800m in his first race over the distance. He clocked 2:43.5 (a time he reduced to 2:41.23 at the SLAN meeting in Coulsdon two weeks later). Thomas also won the U13B Long Jump with 3.63.

Sam Dyson and Harry Allen took the A and B string wins in the U15B 1500m in 4:48.6 and 4:55.1 respectively – a PB for Harry. Zach Elliott clocked a non-scoring PB of 4:56.3. Theo Creed and James Fraser also pulled off the double in the U13B 1500m in 5:02.0  and 5:12.1, with Cyrus Sheikh notching up a PB of 5:04.0 as a non-scorer. There was also a win for the U15B 4 x 100m team.

Overall the team finished in second.

Full results