WADAC enjoys a successful day out at the SEAA 12/6 stage relays

No-one can quite remember when we last contested the Southern 12-stage relays (if indeed we ever have) so it was something of a triumph to have 2 men's 12-stage teams and one ladies 6-stage team turning out and being competitive at this year's event.
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nOf course we had the usual smattering of late call-offs and travel issues but everyone was there on time and looking forward to the exciting mix of long (8.7km) and short (5.0km) race legs.
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nThe men were first off and the bunch start of 49 teams made for some congestion but fortunately our Black & Gold colours were to the fore and we were thrilled to see our first leg runner, Toby Cooke, come back in first place. That meant the Black & Gold was also in the lead of leg 2 for a while!
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nKeeping a long story short both teams ran competitively throughout with the A's finishing in 9th place having never been outside the Top 10. This fine result qualifies our men for the Nationals on 9th April. Our B-team were similarly very competitive finishing 32nd overall and 4th of the B teams. For the A's the fastest short leg was a dead heat in 15'53 by David Mills (Leg 2) and by Calum Upton (Leg 6) whilst the fastest long leg was Toby Cooke with 25'26 (Leg 1). For the B's fastest short was Sam Roberts with 16'16 (Leg 12) and fastest long was Rich Bidgood with 29'49 (Leg 7).
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nThe ladies event is a similar mix of long and short legs round the same paths and roadways and in amongst the men making the whole event a slightly confusing cocktail of runners coming and going. It all makes for an exciting day out and our ladies did us proud by finishing 15th out of the 33 teams and so also qualified for the Nationals. Our fastest short leg was Lily Neate in 17'44 (Leg 1) and our fastest long leg was Tamsin Anderson with 33'04 (Leg 4).
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nGreat results but a key success of the day was WADAC's usual happy mix of athletes with ages ranging from those still 17 through to a few who are now knee-deep into their 50's. Thrilling too that top performers were spread throughout the running order from Leg 1 to Leg 12.
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nCongratulations therefore to the team managers Marcus Green and Sam Parkinson for orchestrating the action and to our Head Coach Nick Anderson for carefully cultivating such strength in depth.
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nMoving on both men (12-stage) and ladies (6-stage) teams are now qualified for the Nationals in Sutton Park Birmingham on 9th April.....if you'd like to be involved let Sam and/or Marcus know.