Team Southampton Athletic Club produced two great team performances at the National Young Athletes Road Relays in Sutton Coldfield on Sunday 3rd April.

The top performance of the day for the club went to the under 15 Girls team who managed 11th team place out of the 69 teams competing and who for much of the race had actually led the field! The team were started off on the first of the three legs of the relay by Rebecca Gough, who ran very strongly throughout her leg to finish in second place, 4 seconds clear of the third placed runner (from last years winners Aldershot). She handed over to Louise Webb who took the lead and extended the gap between her and the next placed runner to over 39 seconds by the end of the 3.9 km course. Kay Shafford in her debut at the road relays and in her first year of competition for the club took on the baton for the team and despite running against the National cross country champion and fastest timed runner of the day, brought the team home in a very creditable 11th place. This was a really great achievement as this was the first time the 3 girls had run together as a team. Webb and Gough managed to run the 5th and 6th fastest times of the day which in this National event with over 220 other runners shows they are real prospects for the clubs future.

After a number of the clubs other runners dropped out just prior to the event, it was left up to the under 15 boys to field the only other team representing team Southampton on the day. Scott Gallant led the team off on the first leg and then Jamie Knapp took over on the second leg and ran brilliantly to put the team into 40th place by the time he finished. Scott Legg took over on the final lap and ran very well to pick up another 7 places and leave the team in 33rd place overall out of the 71 teams running on the day in the age group. Again a very creditable performance by the clubs team.

The club is now looking forward to the start of the track and field season with the first fixture being a Wessex league match at Poole on 17 April. A number of the clubs runners, including Webb and Gough, will be absent that day though as they have been selected to represent the county at the Mini London Marathon. This is run over the last 3 miles of the London Marathon course, past Big Ben and down Birdcage walk, ending in the Mall at the same point as the Seniors. Hampshire has in recent years been the best performing county at this event and hopefully will continue to do so again this year.

Please Note:
These results are based on information sent to me. Any problems with names / times / positions then e-mail teamsouthampton@hotmail.com