A CHAMPION RUN FROM MILAN CAPPED A MIDLAND TITLE VICTORY HAT-TRICK
The Bristol and West men's team successfully defended their Midland cross country relay title for the second time, completing a hat-trick of victories when the championships were staged once again on a challenging course around Aldersley Stadium, Wolverhampton.
What’s more, they did it without any of the current first team's star names. Their winning quartet was led by the club's cross-country captain OWAIN JONES and included two relative newcomers, FLYNN JENNINGS and DYLAN RIGBY, along with MILAN CAMPION, who was the sole representative of the club’s recent National gold medal-winning cross country team.
The anticipated challenge from up-and-coming Birmingham club BRAT, who were our nearest Midland rivals in the recent National road relay championship, never really materialised. Although Stoke eventually took the silver medals, they finished more than two minutes behind us, and Telford were actually the only team to head us on the first of the 6K stages, which consisted of two undulating 3K laps around an attention-demanding course with continual switchbacks and changes of direction.
Our ever-reliable captain Owain was entrusted to give us a solid start, and after the usual early scrimmage, he soon worked his way to the front of the 40 or so teams that started, initially headed by Telford’s DAN GALLOWAY.
Owain even briefly took the lead halfway around the opening lap, but on the initial switchback, the tall, strapping Telford runner surged ahead. Although he quickly opened up a 20-second lead on our seasoned captain, he failed to extend it further on the second lap, and Owain actually closed slightly to finish just 17 seconds adrift in a more than respectable time of 20:20, which turned out to be the 4th fastest overall for the modified lap that was slightly longer than had been used for the previous two years.
The small gap that Telford’s JACK COLE was handed presented an ideal target for young Loughborough student Flynn, who has been gradually fighting his way back to fitness after an injury-ravaged summer and seems to have been rediscovering his form by the fortnight!
He certainly needed no motivation to start the chase, and tearing off like a bull let loose, he caught and passed his Telford rival halfway through the first of the two 3K laps. While understandably suffering somewhat for his early effort on the final circuit, he had opened up a lead of 36 seconds at the finish with the day’s second fastest time of 19:57.
Flynn had improved by the best part of a minute from his run at the Midland road relay to the National, and his time here suggested he had found not far short of another three-quarters of a minute. If the young Devonian can stay clear of injury, he could prove as valuable a recruit as recent Bath graduate MAX DAVIS has been.
Flynn’s barnstorming run left Dylan, who was also making his first appearance for our A team, with the unenviable task of being the hunted rather than the hunter. Yet, though less experienced on the country than he is on the road, he looked untroubled by the going and succeeded in extending our lead to well over a minute with a time of 20:43, which was the 8th best overall.
With such a resounding lead, Milan had no more than a lap of honour to run, but far from easing off, he stormed away from the start and was going so quickly that he suffered balance problems on the many tight corners. Looking like a human terraplane, arms akimbo, he wrestled to maintain the pace he was setting.
Even so, it was no surprise that he still recorded the fastest leg of the day, his 19:47 bringing the team home more than two minutes ahead of Stoke, with Bromsgrove and Redditch a distant third, Tipton 4th, and Telford 5th.
“There were so many hairy twists and turns that I found it difficult to keep my balance as I had made the mistake of not changing my 6k spikes, so I was slipping on the bends. But as a result, you never had time to think about how tired you felt!” exclaimed Milan, who nonetheless said it was fun and that he had enjoyed it.
Another successful day, then, and I couldn’t conclude without commenting on how encouraging it was for us to be accompanied by a strong ladies’ team, who were clearly delighted to have won the women’s title, with their B team adding bronze medals.
Come on, girls, may this be a return to you all keeping together and supporting the club in all the major championship events!
MIKE DOWN (Team Manager)
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