Chasing medals at the Nationals

Having flirted with the possibility of a bronze medal at the halfway mark of the National 12 Stage Championships in the strong winds swirling around Sutton Park, near Birmingham, the Men’s A team finally finished in sixth. It was a record equalling performance which saw them finish less than two minutes outside the medals after over four hours of racing; while the B team were fourth of the Bs and 30th overall, another national best finish. 

Following the historic bronze-and-almost-silver medal at the Southern 12-Stage Championships in Milton Keynes, a fortnight earlier, plus a ground-breaking 30th place for the B team, morale and hopes were flying high.

A hamstring injury to the lead-off man at the Southerns, Stuart McCallum, considerations of performances at Milton Keynes, and a late panic when Finn Johnson's flight from Belfast was cancelled, resulted int a re-shuffling of the pack, and an eleventh hour call to arms to Matt de Freitas to complete the B team.

Below: Fred Slemeck on the opening leg. (Photograph of Fred and Toby Cooke below by Mark Hookway)

The A team were led off on the first long leg (approximately 8.6km) by former team captain Fred Slemeck who clocked 27:25, handing over in 22nd to Charlie Wyllie. Charlie put in the outstanding short stage of the day, setting a new Club record of 15:14 (the fourth-fastest of any short leg on the day) over the 5.1km,  gaining twelve places to send Toby Cooke on his way in tenth (below). 

Toby ran 26:55, to lift the team up into eighth, and so the gains continued as Ed Mallett put in a 15:55 shift to bring the team up to sixth.

A formidable leg from Andrew Penney followed and the excitement rose as his time of 26:32, the second fastest of any of the fifth legs was enough for fourth. When Charlie Eastaugh followed with a short leg of 15:40 the scent of medals was wafting on the wind as he came home within one second from  bronze position. Tom Jervis on leg 7 ran 27:06 to keep the team in fourth, and when Bradley Goater clocked 15:47, to hand over to Jonny Cornish the gap to third was still at just 30 seconds.

However as students of the 12-stage know only too well, this event can be like poker over four hours and the game can change in a heartbeat as teams reveal their hands.

So, while on any other day England International Jonny could have been the ace card on this stage, other clubs were also raising their games, and despite a time of 27:02, Jonny handed over in fifth to team captain James Stockings, who ran 15:54 to re-gain fourth and hand over to Archie Walton, with whom he had swapped legs. Archie found himself on a lonely eleventh leg, clocking 28:05 to give Henry Silverstein the task of bringing the team home on a loaded last leg, which saw an outrageous sprint to the finish for bronze position as Highgate Harriers inched past Cambridge & Coleridge, while Henry's  time of 15:46 sealed the record-equalling sixth place in an overall time of 4:17:21.

For the B team Sam Todd led off with 28:44, handing over in 41st to George Brown (16:00) who brought the team up to 33rd. Eoin Brady ran 29:09, Richard Jones 17:54, Alex Sutton 28:41, Simon Wade 17:17 George Brown 16:00, and Ryan McAlister 29:02 to bring the team up to 30th. Jamie Bannister posted 18:14, then  Oli Carrington followed with 28:03, stealing a place, and Joe Clark picked off one more, coming home in 17:09. Chris McIlroy held onto 28th in 29:51, handing over to the heroic Matt DeFreitas who set off in the mass start, and anchored the team to 30th, two up on the previous best of 32nd last year.

Full results