KURT Taylor’s (pictured above wearing A 12) time in the English National 12-Stage Road Relay Championships is the second fastest recorded by a Bristol & West AC runner in the modern era.
The long stage was altered in 2016 so the times posted by the former greats of the club like Nick Rose, Devon McNeilly and Ray Crabb are no longer comparable.
“Since the course was altered in 2016 only Pete Le Grice has run quicker on the long stage,” said B&W team manager Mike Down.
Le Grice clocked 25mins 43secs in 2018 as the club finished seventh. The pair are the only B&W runners to have dipped inside 26 minutes since 2016 in the English ‘National’ event.
The next quickest is Dan Studley, who ran 26:07 in 2019, the year in which the club won the silver medals, repeating that success of 2017 having finished third in 2016.
Interestingly the club’s time on Saturday, 4hrs 19mins 14secs to finish 12th, was quicker than 2017 (4:19.55) and only fractionally slower than 2019 (4:14.33) so that underlines just how much the competition and standards have improved.
As for the short stage Josh Moody’s (pictured left) 15:28 last year is the quickest with Taylor just a few seconds behind and Mike Wilsmore third fastest.
NATIONAL 12-STAGE TOP SIX LONG STAGES
25:43 Pete Le Grice 2018
25:44 Kurt Taylor 2023
26:07 Dan Studley 2019
26:19 Will Christofi 2016
26:20 Taylor 2022
26:28 Steve Mitchell 2017
SHORT STAGES
15:28 Josh Moody 2022
15:31 Taylor 2019
15:37 Mike Wilsmore 2019
15:39 Callum Jones 2019
15:40 Ben Westhenry 2016 & William Parkin 2022