U13 NATIONAL ROAD RELAYS


On Sunday 18th October 2009 at 11am Luke Prior, Charlie Martin and Oliver Fox met up at Sutton Park, Birmingham relishing the challenge ahead. All three wanted a top ten finish to go with their 5th place at the Southern Road Relays 2 weeks earlier.
      At 12.10pm Luke Prior set off on the 3.8k first leg, the early pace was blistering with elbows flying on the start line. Luke soon settled down to his own pace, using the early hill to his advantage to move through the field. Over the second half of the leg Luke settled in a group of 5 runners to finish in 27th place in a time of 14min 49sec on a very fast stage. He handed over to Charlie Martin, who set off with confidence coming from some great results of late, he caught 3 teams after the first hill and carried on strongly over the latter stages of the leg to catch another 10 teams (at least 3 of these up the last climb). This brought him home in 14th place in a time of 14min 40sec giving him 10th fastest of the leg. Charlie then handed over to our 3rd member of the team, unleashing "The Fox" (Oliver). He set off up the first climb like he was chased by the hounds, catching 5 teams in the first mile. The rest of the team were hoping he could hang on for 9th spot but Oliver had other ideas. With a superb finishing drive, climbed another 3 spots to bring the team home in 6th place in a time of 13min 42sec, giving him the 4th fastest of the leg and 6th fastest of the day.
Mission complete, the boys said "watch this space, better to come" with the Southern and National Cross Country Championships later in the year.