SAC Qualify for National Road Relays

A first appearance for SAC at the Southern 12-Stage Road Relay Championships at Milton Keynes since 2019 and to qualify for the National Road Relays was a fantastic achievement.

The SAC team had a mix of everything from the young, older, first timers and the experienced and finished 22nd overall from 50 teams.

These championships remain a big race on the UK calendar and give a true perspective of what racing is all about.

Richard Waldron (28:25) and Alex Prinsep (16:55) got the team off to a good start in and around the mid pack hovering around the Top 25 needed to qualify for the National on the challenging undulating course which didn’t help with a strong wind on the hill section.

Sam Costley (26:29) moved a huge 9 places up to 17th proving his pedigree with the 5th fastest time on his leg handing to Callum Olden (16:28) who moved up a further place to 16th.
The first of 2 debutants to this event, Jacob Atwal (27:55) ran a strong leg moving up another place handing over to Andrew Thomas, also debuting, to close in the half way stage in 15th place.

Matthew James closed down some big gaps and moved up 3 further places to 12th before taking an unfortunate wrong turn to run an extra lap of a mile.
Despite the unfortunate incident, Matthew gave his all clawing back vital distance to the clubs ahead. Closing at 27th after leg 7 all was not lost just yet with a few teams now in close proximity and the Top 25 still achievable.

Our youngest member of the team Brandon Chaplin (16:08) ran a fantastic paced race to post the 11th fastest time on his leg not only to take us back into the Top 25 at 22nd but also put distance between us and the chasing teams.

Xavier Compton (29:31) held his position well to keep Southampton on course for the National target and hand on to the most experienced athlete of the team in Ian Harpur.
Ian (19:17) a former medalist at this event when Southampton finished runners up 28 years ago took on the challenge to roll back the years. The oldest member of the team at 58 more than held his own though despite dropping one place late on to 23rd.
This was short lived though as Dan Bradford (27:27) bided his time before putting more distance between SAC and the chasing pack posting the 7th fastest time on his leg moving back up to 22nd.
Emlyn Hughes who turned 50 last month clocked 17:44 on the final leg and bring Southampton home for 22nd place overall and 19th A Team to comfortably qualify for the National Road Relays to be held at Sutton Park, Birmingham in 2 weeks time.