Midland 6 Stage Relay, Sat 19th Mar
Men 5th and Ladies 18th at Sutton Park
Jo Pulsford inspired the Ladies team when she ran the fastest leg for Rugby & Northampton AC in the Midland 6 stage road relay held at Sutton Park in Birmingham. The 29 year old gained 13 places on leg 3 to move the team up to 15th place with a time of 17 mins 39 secs for the 3 mile course. Pulsford’s time made her the 10th fastest of all the competitors in the race and keeps her on track for a good run in the London Marathon.
The opening leg saw Louise Thompson run the second fastest for the club when she crossed the line in 22nd position to record 19.58 and then handed over to Jo Love who was timed at 22.33 for 28th spot before Pulsford produced her magnificent run.
Rachel Shaw followed on the fourth stage and made up another 3 places with 20.38, which put the squad in 12th position and Tricia Garner produced a solid performance on the next leg when she recorded 22.03 in 13th spot.
Bringing the team home in 18th place was club stalwart Ann Rollings in a time of 23.47.
The Senior Men from R&N were unable to field a 12 man team, so instead they opted to enter a 6 man Veteran Team for the first time ever.
Unlike the Ladies race two athletes had to run long stages of 5.4 miles with Brendan Moen getting the team started and dipping under 32 minutes with 31.52 to hand over in 6th place.
Vince Carroll, then produced the fastest short stage of the day for the club when he covered the 3 miles in 17.10 to move the squad up to 5th place where they remained for the duration of the race.
The youngest member of the team was 35 year old Neil Willsher and after having a good cross country season he turned out for the club once more and was timed at 18.23. The fourth leg was the next long stage and this was the turn of the newly crowned Club Cross Country Champion Paul Birch who recorded 31.43 to cap a superb season.
The final two legs saw the pairing of Brian Summers and Terry Egan when they recorded 18.16 and 17.42 respectively.
