National Road Relays, Highworth 5, Nuneaton Open + Brighton Marathon

11 April 2022

Our senior women’s team impressed at the long awaited return of National 6 stage Road relays, with the last edition being held back in 2019, pre Covid.

Getting the team started on leg one and the first of two long legs was the always reliable Petra Vymetalova. Vymetalova ran a strong race to finish in 30th in a time of 36:39, knocking 30 seconds off her run at the Midland Championships just two weeks prior. Angela Pippard took on leg two running well to finish in 23:43 and hand over to team manager Jo Wilkie in 29th. Wilkie then bettered her Midland Championships time, running 21:22 and moving the team up to 26th. Jane Fairbairn then tackled the second long leg, running superbly to finish in 36:01 and put the team up to 23rd. Mell Schofield then gained another place on her way to a time of 23:30, really stepping up for the team by taking over a minute off her Midland Championship time. The team were then brought home by Sophie Bestwick, a performance of 20:57 just one week after running a marathon was truly exceptional and earnt the team an amazing 20th place finish.

(Photo: Jo Wilkie flying towards the finish line)

The following day three Harriers competed in the Highworth 5 mile road race. Nick Holliday was first Harrier home in 31:01 and 1st M60-69. England athlete Kathryn Morton ran 37:31 for 2nd in the W55-65 category and Sue Townsend ran 38:19 for 3rd in the W55-64 category. 

A few Harriers opened up their outdoor track campaigns at the Nuneaton Open. Lily Marchant began by running a solid 27.45 in the 200m, but it was the 300m where she impressed most, running 45.15 for a new PB. After a string of PBs over the course of the indoor season Ruby Brook picked up where she had left off knocking another 0.25 off her 400m best to finish in 59.06.

Marathon season continued in Brighton with Matt Wagstaff and Alexandra Farrell-Thomas taking on the distance. After a fast start Wagstaff held on well to finish in 3:11:32. Meanwhile, Farrell-Thomas knocked around 2 minutes off her PB finishing in a fantastic time of 3:27:15.

(Photo: Big smiles from Alexandra Farrell-Thomas after a marathon PB)