Boys excel in road replay

12:15am Wednesday 8th October 2008

The Southern Road Relays, one of the most competitive in the south, took place at Aldershot over the weekend with hundreds of teams spanning from Cornwall to Norfolk.

The best performance went to the U15 boys who comprised of Chris Neil, newcomer Sam Robinson, Alex Rudge and Tom Bennett. Chris debuted on this course this time last year, making his first appearance for the club and coped with the mass start well, keeping a steady pace and finishing in 24th, in a great time of 10:34 for the 3k lap, improving on last year by a massive 1:39 seconds. Chris handed over to Sam who was also making his first appearance for the club at these races and he advanced two more places to 22nd finishing in an excellent 10:39.

Sam then handed over to the first of the two big guns of the team, Alex Rudge. Alex is a seasoned and talented performer and his stamina and speed was too much for the majority and he brought the team to 15th place in 10:09, the third fastest time over the leg and the 23rd fastest leg of the day (ten seconds faster than last year).

Tom Bennett was on the final leg and he did not disappoint. With 14 athletes spread many hundreds of metres ahead of him he tore the field apart and completed the course 46 seconds faster than last year, in 9:44. Tom ran the fastest final leg and he was seventh fastest of the day to bring the boys team home in seventh place overall against 37 complete teams.

This is a very strong age group for Andover, who also had a partial B team of Roland Barter and Sam Deery who competed over legs one and two finishing in 11:46 and 12:58 respectively. The U17 women also had a full team; Christie Woodford, Ellora Milson and Charlotte Brown. Christie and Ellora both finishing in identical times of 12:16.

Ellora handed over to Charlotte who brought the team home in 21st place in 13:26.

The Senior Men raced on the Saturday fielding a full team of six spread right across the ages. The men had to complete 12 laps of the 3k course so each leg comprised of two laps for Kieran Hooley, Tim Bennett, Kelvin Mason, Ian Oldacre, Gavin Whatley and Matt Lane and they finished in 74th place.

Solomon Lane was the only club competitor in the U13 relay and so competed over the first lap. He excelled with a large hill at the beginning and his time of 11:18 saw him cross in 20th place in his best race to date.

Due to a late injury, the U17 boys only had three team members, all tbottom age, but that did not stop them stepping up to the plate in this highly competitive age group. Their lap included an extra 0.8k loop which involved a horrendous hill and Chris Adams took responsibility for the lead off lap and at the top of the first hill was up with the leaders. However, the fast start and the remnants of a cold took its toll with Chris dropping back to 38th in 13:55. He handed to Chris Berntsen who quickly started to pull 15 places back running 12:47, the 30th fastest time of the day.

On the third lap Ricky Taylor had a strong run, ensuring he maintained his pace to the end crossing the line in 34th position in 16:42.