On the evening of Tuesday 25th
June the
The Civil Service men had a stiff task
to retain their LBH Bridges Relay title without Chris Smith in their
line up but they put up a sterling performance in an
valiant attempt to try and hang onto the title. Mike Cummings ran the
opening leg for the Civil Service Men's "A" team and clocked the
fastest leg of the night by a London Business Houses entrant (4th overall) with
11:38. Nic Gould ran the 2nd leg in a very swift 12:33 and handed
over to Crispin Allen who produced a fine run of 13:03 keeping the
team in first place out of the LBH teams. Richard Hall took over
on the anchor and put in a good effort with 13:44 but it wasn't quite good
enough as he was closed down on the long run for home and overtaken by the
anchor man from Barclays. The team finished 2nd out of 61 LBH teams and 4th
overall out of 103 teams in the open category.
The Civil Service Women's "A"
team was backloaded with each runner improving on the
previous runner’s time. Maureen Noel led the Civil
Service women off with 16:19 and handed over to Jenny Thomas who ran
16:07. Ellie Cox (15.34) took
over on the anchor leg to bring the team home to team silver in 48:00 behind
the Metropolitan Police Women's "A" team who were the 1st LBH team in
46:58.
There was a tremendous battle on for
team bronze between our women's "B" team and Nationwide. Maggie
Statham had kicked off the first leg with 17:23 and handed over to Ilona
Bagi who produced a run of 15:27 which substantially reduced the Nationwide advantage from 2:20 to 60 seconds.
In the open category we had a mixed
team that performed well holding their own and showing good promise for the
future. They were the Civil Service "C" team and finished as the 35th
LBH team from 61 teams and were placed 64th overall from a field of 103. Bilal Evans
opened for the "C" team clocking 16:48, Saskia Bradbury backed that time up
well with 16:41. Matthew Bollington put in a useful
15:25 before Charlotte Seymour took over on the final leg to bring them
home with a run of 16:52 which saw them close in 1:05:46.
Unfortunately, due to withdrawals I had
decided to reorganise the Civil Service teams running orders which resulted in
there being no Civil Service "B" team in the open category. That is
apart from me (John O'Shea). However, as I'd handed out all the Civil Service
race numbers with 3 minutes to spare before Big Ben struck 7 O'clock I decided
to run and joined the first leg runners all 136 of them and run as a solo for
the "B" team clocking 13:45.
The evening saw both the men's and
women's course records fall. Shaun Dixon of Highgate Harriers
set a new course best with 11:12 and Stacey Ward representing KPMG
clocked 12:35 to set a new women's course record.
Congratulations to Katie Meredith for running the 3rd fastest leg of the
evening out of 123 women with a tremendous leg of 13:35 for Highgate Harriers
for which she is the women's road relay team manager. Katie had previously led the Civil Service women to team gold in
2010 when she teamed up with Claire Day and Caroline
Tuck. Katie's husband Stephen Meredith is also a civil servant and on my Civil
Service
Thank you to everyone's efforts on
Tuesday. The Bridges Relays are always good fun and there's always a good
friendly atmosphere as team mates and supporters cheer each other on particularly
from the spectators’ gallery along the back wall of
See attached for full results. I have
also attached the "All Time" course records. Stephanie Robson is
listed back in 2003 with a fastest leg of 13:22 as is Chris Smith from last
year with 11:24. The Civil Service women's winning team from 2009 are listed
but not the individuals, just for the
record they were Diana Kennedy (14.24), Stephanie Robson (13.56) and Liz Stavreski (14.09). Liz was looking forward to running in this
year's Bridges Relays but was knocked off her bicycle some weeks ago by a
driver as isn't as yet ready run. We all wish you well Liz and look forward to
seeing you back competing in the near future.
LBH PRIZES
1st LBH OPEN
Barclays Barclays
A 0:50:45
2nd LBH OPEN Civil Service Civil Service A
0:50:58
3rd LBH OPEN Nationwide
Nationwide A 0:51:58
1st LBH LADIES Met Police AC Met Police Ladies
1 0:46:58
2nd LBH LADIES Civil Service Civil Service Ladies A 0:48:00
3rd LBH LADIES Nationwide Nationwide
Ladies 0:49:25
1st LBH MAN Civil Service Mike
Cummings 11:38.0
2nd LBH MAN Capco
Andy Greenleaf 11:41.0
3rd LBH MAN
Barclays Andrew Lawrence 11:53.0
1st LBH LADY JP Morgan Deya Rivera Luna
14:28.0
2nd LBH LADY British Airways Vicky Edwards
14:39.0
3rd LBH LADY Standard Chartered Bank Victoria Mallinson 14:57.0
NON LBH PRIZES
FASTEST OPEN TEAM Highgate
Harriers Highgate Harriers
B 0:48:06
FASTEST LADIES TEAM Highgate
Harriers Highgate Ladies
1 0:40:46
FASTEST MAN Highgate B
Shaun Dixon 11:12.0
2nd FASTEST MAN Highgate D Ben Noad 11:14.0
3rd FASTEST MAN Highgate B Danny
Russell 11:31.0
4th FASTEST MAN Highgate A Ben Pochee 11:40.0
FASTEST LADY KPMG Ladies Stacey
Ward 12:35.0
2nd FASTEST WOMAN Highgate Ladies
1 Esther Evans 13:25.0
3rd FASTEST WOMAN Highgate Ladies
1 Katie Meredith 13:35.0
4th FASTEST WOMAN Highgate Ladies
1 Vicky Frew
13:46.0
John O'Shea
Acting Team Manager
London Civil Service Athletics Team