Race Date Tuesday 27 June 2017

The Dam Flask Relays have become one of the most important events on the club calendar in South Yorkshire with over 600 competitors and 176 teams (half of them women’s teams too!) from 19 clubs taking part. A massive undertaking for a Tuesday evening so a big well done and thank you to all of the officials and host club Sheffield Running Club. Thoughts go to the inhabitants of Bradfield who found themselves swamped with athletes for the evening. There are reports that the Plough had their business affected with people using their car park and other facilities but on the other hand, the cricket club did well at the bar. We must also thank our own team manager John Kilcoyne who had the headache of looking after the entries for 8 ladies and 14 men’s teams. What a great turnout for the club, well done everyone.

Over a 3.5 mile lap of Dam Flask with about 300ft of climb, fastest legs were set by Steven Bayton (Hallam) 17:15 and Sarah Lowery (Sheffield RC) 21:21. Course records are 16:35 set by Jason Ward (Hallam) and 20:01 by Calli Thackery (Hallam), both International athletes..

The ladies race sorts itself out on the first hill.

Without doubt, the plaudits must go to our senior ladies team of Caroline Brock, Sian Evans and Jennifer Rich who took gold nearly a minute ahead of Barnsley AC. Conventional wisdom has it that the fastest athletes go on first and last legs so Caroline was up against some of the best. Resisting the temptation to go off too fast she used the hill to claim back a couple of places to hand over in 7^th position. Sian Elizabeth then hunted down athlete after athlete to hand over to Jenny in first place although this was no easy glory run as there was still hard work to be done. Our ladies ran 6^th, 7^th and 10^th fastest legs on the evening. Make no bones about it, this is a great result for the club.

In the men’s race, Kristoff Boynton, James Rose, Jorge Bronze and Phil Skelton were our first team home in 7^th place whilst the M50’s of David Wilson, Nick Scott, Peter Brown and Paul Stuart got bronze medals for their efforts in a close run affair as only 35 seconds covered the first three M50 teams after 90 minutes of action.

One of the big measures of status for a club is the ability to get its best athletes together in the same place at the same time for the big relays. The Northern 6 stage and 4 stage relays take place in the Autumn so now is the time to start planning and there must be a chance of qualifying for the National Finals. A big step up indeed.

Sian, Caroline and Jenny all looking very happy.