Wiltshire Road Relays 2012

Wiltshire Athletic Association attracted 46 teams from across the county to Castle Combe Race Circuit for the Wiltshire Road Relays. In ideal running conditions it was Swindon Harriers who made the early running with Chris Reade completing the first 6K leg in 19:00 some 50-seconds ahead of Dave Coales of Team Bath and Joby Hobbs of Avon Valley Runners. However a 19:58 leg-2 by Max Hazell allowed Team Bath to take the lead and solid performances by Alex Jones and Alex Hill secured victory in a total time of 1:21:18 over a minute ahead of second placed Swindon Harriers and despite the fastest leg of the day in 18:58 by Michael Towler, Avon Valley Runners had to settle for third place. However it was the Wiltshire Road Race League Champions who demonstrated their strength in depth by claiming the titles in both the Male Veterans (Warren Wade, Richard Morgetroyd, Paul Carter & James Hart) and Male Super-Veterans (Stuart MacGregor, Mark Harris, Andy Lawrence & Sean Butler) team categories ahead of Chippenham Harriers and Swindon Harriers with Jim Hart and Stuart MacGregor of Avon Valley Runners securing the fastest legs of the day in their respective age groups.

In the Ladies race Avon Valley Runners were dominant with their Senior, Veteran and Super-Veteran teams taking a 1-2-3 ahead of local rivals Chippenham Harriers and Frome Running Club. Leading out for Avon Valley Runners was the in-form Fiona Price who after the first leg led by 16-seconds from club mate Diane Hier, before handing over to Vanessa Lucas and onto Ruth Barnes who stormed the final leg in 20:57 to record the fastest ladies leg of the day. Sarah Sims and Linda Ladner completed the Avon Valley Runners Super-Vets team to take second place ahead of the Avon Valley Runners Veteran team consisting of Sarah Jewers, Suzann Large and Juliet Coulsen with Gemma Collings of Chippenham Harriers recording the fastest Veterans leg time.

In the Juniors race over 4 x 3K it was a victory for Avon Valley Runners with Rory Tucker, James Welbourn, Alex Tucker and Cameron Price finishing ahead of rivals from Chippenham Youth and Team Bath. Ethan Jones of Chippenham Youth recorded the fastest Junior Boys leg of the day with a 10:33 clocking and Caitlin Woisika of Team Bath recorded the fastest Junior Girls leg with 11:53.

New for 2012 was a Novices category aimed at runners who had competed in three or less races and so the Chippenham Harriers Beginners group team of Nadia Mitchell, Emma King, Lesley Hodges and Nicola Todd took victory ahead of Avon Valley Runners.

The event was supported by Stampede Sports whose next event is the White Horse Gallop 5-mile trail run at Westbury on Sunday 18th November and DB Max who provided the precision chip timing for the event and will be hosting the Chilly 10K and Duathlon at Castle Combe on Sunday 25th November.Men: 1^st – Team Bath AC – Dave Coales, Max Hazell, Alex Jones & Alex Hill – 1:21:18 2^nd – Swindon Harriers – Chris Reade, Paul Key, Simon Dill & Dan Pigeon – 1:22:31 3^rd – Avon Valley Runners – Joby Hobbs, Thomas Coney, Chris Roxburgh & Michael Towler – 1:23:05 Ladies: 1^st – Avon Valley Runners – Fiona Price, Vanessa Lucas & Ruth Barnes – 1:08:33 2^nd – Avon Valley Runners – Diane Hier, Sarah Sims & Linda Ladner – 1:16:58 3^rd – Avon Valley Runners – Sarah Jewers, Suzann Large & Juliet Coulson – 1:19:08 Juniors 1^st – Avon Valley Runners – Rory Tucker, James Welbourn, Alex Tucker & Cameron Price – 49:44 2^nd – Chippenham Youth – Ethan Jones, Ben Magee, Matt Warren & Will Collings – 50:10 3^rd – Team Bath AC – Jade Littlechild, Sasha Nugara, Katie Strange & Caitlin Woisika – 50:46

Full results at www.dbmax.co.uk