TEAM Bath AC women produced their best performance in 22 years to finish third in the iconic 34th annual Welsh Castles Relay over the weekend.
A superb team perform
ance over the two days comprising 211 miles of racing over 20 stages from Caernarfon in the north to Cardiff in the south was capped by a tremendous individual stage victory by Katrine Svene on that final stage into the capital.
“We won the event in 1994 and it is our best result since that year,” said women’s team captain Jo Thompson.
“Katrine had a brilliant run and Laura Backhouse was an excellent second on the Builth Wells to Drovers Arms stage.
“But overall we had a really good mix of younger and more experienced runners and everyone seemed to enjoy it. “It was a really good weekend.”
Svene’s victory on the final stage wasn’t the only win for the club’s women as Sue Sidey was eventually awarded top place on stage eight from Dinas Mawddwy to Foel.
Clevedon AC’s senior men finished 15th with Westbury Harriers 26th and Bitton Road Runners 33rd.
Welsh Castles road relay (207 miles over two days: 1 Salford Harriers 20:25.26.
12 (11th open race) Team Bath AC 23:28.40; 15 Clevedon AC 23:39.11; 26 Westbury Harriers 25:43.19; 33 Bitton RR 26:16.07.
Women: 1 Les Croupiers 25:50.12; 2 Ealing Eagles 26:17.04; 3 Team Bath Ladies 26:43.31.
9 Bitton RR 30:32.13.
Mountain Kings (stages 3,7,10,11,14 & 16) men: 1 Salford Harriers 6:31.15. 6 Team Bath AC 7:05.57
Women: 1 Les Croupiers 8:23.45; 2 Serpentine 8:26.12; 3 Team Bath 8:36.39.