Dulwich Runners round-up: Senior men and women successful at Southern England Road Relays
Dulwich Runners’ senior men and women had a successful afternoon at the Southern England Road Relays championships at Crystal Palace at the weekend, both qualifying for the national championships in October, writes Jonathan Whittaker.
This year’s qualification for the nationals was effectively split between alternative events at Crystal Palace and Aldershot with the first eight ‘A’ teams at either venue sure of qualification.
The women’s senior race (4x5km) saw Alex McLelland (18:39) put Dulwich in a great early position as sixth fastest. Clare Norris (21:16) and Laura Torry (21:40) kept the team in the final qualifying place with strong runs before Polly Low-Macrae ran the seventh-fastest leg of the entire race (17:38) to give Dulwich a comfortable eight place (1:19:12) ‘A’ team finish and qualification.
The men’s senior race involved a slightly different format of six runners on a 5.8km course.
Nick Impey (18:27), in his first race for Dulwich, crossed the line in fourth to provide an excellent base for Ben Howe (19:07), Ed Chuck (18:37) and Aaron Wilson (18:47) to consolidate the team’s position.
Joe Hallsworth (18:57) then moved them into the podium places, passing runners from Newham and South London Harriers. Jack Ramm (18:29) anchored the team to second place (1:52:21) with the gap to first place Victoria Park just too much to close. The B team of Shane O’Neill, Rob Armstrong, Jon Phillips, Ed Gibson, Finn Nugent and Tim Bowen finished eighth in 1:56:19 in the same race, beating established ‘A’ teams in the process.
Dulwich also picked up medals in many of the masters races. The women’s 40-plus team of Eleanor Simmons, Ola Balme, Catherine Buglass and Michelle Lennon won silver.
There were bronzes for the men’s 50-plus (Robert Archer, Ameet Patel, Stephen Trowell and Grzegorz Galezia) and 60-plus teams (Tony Tuohy, Hugh Balfour, Martin Kelsen and Ebe Prill). The men’s 40-plus team of Kev Chadwick, Tom South, Adrian Russell and Buzz Shepherd finished fourth in a competitive race behind Serpentine, Victoria Park and Kent AC.
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