Winchester women triumph in Southern Road Relays

nThe 6-stage SRR is an event in which Winchester has some
nhistory, having competed regularly during the Noughties. The 2006 victory
nfeatured many of the club’s best-known female runners, and that was followed-up
nby the team of 2009, who won silver medals behind local rivals Aldershot.
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nThis year’s event, held for the second year running at
nCyclopark near Gravesend, saw the runners having to battle high winds throughout.
nFirst off for WADAC was Mel Wilkins, now returning to her best form after a
ndifficult year, and she set the tone for the day with a superb 15m28 third-place
nrun, 18 seconds off leaders Herne Hill, and sandwiched between race favourites
nThames Valley in 2nd and AFD in 4th . Next up was Hayley Munn,
nrunning one of the three-lap longer legs, and her time of 23m27 kept the team
nsolidly in contention in 5th place overall.
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nThe third leg saw triathlete Simone Dailey run a magnificent
n15m10, to take the WADAC team up to second place overall. Ominously though,
nThames Valley had now opened a 90-second lead at the front, and with another top
nrunner to come in the fourth leg.
nWinchester’s fourth leg runner was Lorna Russell, who completed the long
nleg in an excellent 23m16, leaving the WADAC team still in the medal positions
nin third. However, Tracy Barlow, training partner of all the Winchester women,
nbut running for her first-claim club, Thames, had gone even faster, and their
nlead over second-placed AFD was now over two minutes, and over Winchester in
nthird was two and a half minutes.
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nIn the fifth leg however, the WADAC fight-back picked up in
nearnest. India Lee, European Champion triathlete and a veteran of the 2009
nsilver-medal WADAC team, stormed to the fastest leg of the day by any runner,
n14m23, and the seemingly unassailable Thames lead was now down to 44 seconds.
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nThe task of completing the job for Winchester fell to Vicky
nGill, ironically a member back in 2009 of the AFD team that had beaten Winchester
ninto second place. Gradually she closed on the Thames runner ahead, and with less
nthan a lap remaining, passed her, and ran on to record a time of 15m32, and
ncomplete a stunning victory for the team by just 16 seconds.
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nCoach Nick Anderson summed up the result : “In an event as
nfiercely competitive as the Southern Road Relays, the only way you stand any
nchance of winning is if your whole team perform to their best level on the same
nday, which is pretty hard to achieve. But that’s exactly what this team did,
nand hopefully it’s the first major trophy of many for our current crop of
nendurance runners”.
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