On Sunday 26th Birchfield Harriers staged the National Relays Championships in the Commonwealth Stadium in Birmingham. The top ranked clubs nationally were invited to compete and R & N were invited to no less than eight events.
The morning session saw the heats, where all R & N teams progressed to the finals. First up were the U15 girls – Emily Elden, Ava Hession, Nina Ntkey and Jasmine Jessamy. The quartet finished in 5th place – just outside the medals. The U15 boys then took to centre stage and the team of Isaac Byrne, Daniel Nwafornta, Zak Thorpe and Keanu Reeves went one better, finishing 4th – agonisingly 1/100th of a second behind bronze. A new club record and one the fastest times in the UK this year, 45.69
The U20 women’s team of Annalise Foxon-Day, Mary Meraiyebu, Lucy Boyes and Efua Boateng finished in 6th position, clocking a new club record in the process, whilst the U20 men were unfortunately struck by an injury on the final leg.
Then came the medal rush !! First of all the U15G 4 x 300m team took an unexpected bronze medal. The first three runners, Matilda Bean, Isla Kendall and Claudia Terrrell performed magnificently to pass the baton to Mary Taylor in 4th position: Mary raced past the third position and hung on to claim bronze.
The U20 longer relay was a mixed 4 x 400m race – 2 male and 2 female – as is becoming the norm at major championships. Numeiri Saeed started the race, bringing the team home in first position – a lead the team of Annie May Cannings, Isabelle Knight and Oliver Parker maintained from gun to tape to take a famous victory and post a new National club record.
The U17 4 x 100m teams both came into the event ranked in 5th position but this meant nothing to the young sprinters. The girls were led off by Esme Dubois, who passed the baton to Grace McCollin, Olivia Monk and finally Isabelle Knight. The team were sublime with their change overs and streaked away from the field to win by a huge margin in a new club record and the leading UK time of 47.37 – one of the fastest times of all time- a simply stunning performance.
The U17 boys were not to be outdone, however. Ernset Kisel started round the bend and passed to Flynn Ridgeway, Ben Wyle and finally Harrison Nash. Harrison took the baton with a 2 metre lead and extended this lead to 5 metres to claim the gold, a massive new club record and again one of the fastest time ever by a UK club – 42.37. What makes these times even more impressive was that the conditions were poor – windy and cool !
A simply outstanding day for the R & N sprinters and testimony to all the hard work put in over the the years by the athletes and coaches at both Moulton and Rugby.
