Wiltshire Road Relays 2011
Wiltshire Road Relays 2011
Avon Valley Runners and Chippenham Harriers dominated the inaugural Wiltshire Road Relays held at Castle Combe. Thirty teams lined up on the motor race circuit for the event organised by Wiltshire Athletic Association and supported by DB Max and Stampede Sports. The event saw a number of close fought battles throughout the prize categories on offer.
Leading the way in the Senior Men’s race Alistair Sheffield of Team Bath completed leg-1 in the lead with Dave Spencer of Avon Valley Runners just a few strides behind. On leg-2 Chris Hine of Team Bath opened up a significant lead over Carl Davies of Avon Valley Runners, to hand over to Stephen Rose. Mike Towler of Avon Valley Runners started to close down on the Team Bath athlete. On the final leg, Avon Valley’s Tom Fisher almost melted the tarmac, running at a blistering pace to record the fastest leg of the day of 18-minutes & forty one seconds over the 3.7-mile course, but it was not enough to stop Dan Jones taking the title for Team Bath.
In the MV40 category, Chippenham Harriers took an early lead with Andy Bennetts recording the fastest MV40 leg of the day. On leg-2 Frank Checcia maintained the lead for Chippenham Harriers, however leg-3 saw a storming run by Jim Hart of Avon Valley Runners to close down on Chippenham’s Stuart Dinwoodie. The last leg saw a game of cat and mouse develop between Warren Wade of Avon Valley Runners and Peter Cusick of Chippenham Harriers, with Avon Valley Runners taking victory by just 14-seconds.
The MV50 race also saw a duel between Chippenham Harriers and Avon Valley Runners. Despite Avon Valley’s Sean Butler recording the fastest MV50 leg of the day, it was Tom Smith of Chippenham Harriers who crossed the line first, with just a 12-second margin over second placed Avon Valley Runners.
The Ladies race was dominated by veterans teams with the Avon Valley Runners V40 team of Jo Mumford, Jackie Rockliffe and Rachel Bown taking victory ahead of Chippenham Harriers V40 team. Chippenham Harriers did however win the Senior category with Michelle Maxwell recording the fastest leg of the day. In the FV50 category Avon Valley Runners triumphed with Karen Butler of the winning team recording the fastest leg.
In the Junior race Chippenham Youth took victory with the team of Josh Howells, Will Collins, Sam Malling and Matt Malling beating Avon Valley Runners into second, with Josh recording the fastest leg by a junior boy and Kate Strange also of Chippenham Youth recording the fastest leg by a Junior girl.
Prizes in all race categories and county medals for the fastest legs were presented by Chris Sloane, Chairman of Wiltshire Athletic Association. Full results can be found at www.dbmax.co.uk and photographs at http://www.photobox.co.uk/my/album?album_id=970823088