SO what a great weekend for our senior athletes at the British Masters Cross Country Relays.
Bristol & West AC and Westbury Harriers both struck gold at the event held at Nottingham.
For B&W Annabel Granger, Clare Jolliffe, who stepped down an age group and Sara Everitt linked up to win the over 45s event after a terrific tussle with Telford AC.
Indeed, Telford led going into the third and final leg with Everitt trailing Rachel Coupe by eight seconds. Cheered on by the other club runners at the event Everitt overhauled the Telford woman and by the finish B&W had a 15-seconds winning margin.
Everitt’s time was the third fastest of the day behind clubmate Granger with Telford’s Claire Martin, who gave her club a flying start, the fastest. Jolliffe’s time was the fifth fastest but the fastest on the day by an over 55 runner.
A great triumph for the women on top of their success at the national road relays.
Westbury’s success also came after a hard-fought competition. Mike Mewse brought them home in second on stage one with David George slipping one place on the next stage as a strong Oxford City squad took the lead from Sheffield RC.
But Westbury had held back Nigel Gates for the final stage and Gates, who has been one of the best distance runners in the West Country over a long and successful career, clocked the third fastest time of the day to bring them into the gold position 15 seconds clear of Sheffield with Oxford dropping back to third.
Two fantastic golds for both our clubs – and more medals to follow shortly on the blog!