“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
With Jake declaring that he felt like he was getting ready for cross country rather than a summer relay, the JJs made their way, in the drizzle, to the humid warmth of the Great Park for the traditional Gosforth relays, joining 74 other teams on the start line. With three men’s and two women’s teams, the JJs were in buoyant mood, with Tom, Niran, Simon, Louise and Sophie leading off the teams with the men and women both starting at the same time.
Tom, on home ground living 600m from the start, recorded the fastest time for a JJ with 10:20, ably backed up by Jake and Ben to bring home the JJs team in a great 6th place beating the like of North Shields Poly and Heaton A teams. Not far behind was the JJs B team of Niran, Rob Kingston, making his club debut both dipping under, or equalling 11mins for the 1.9miles race, with Pany storming round in just under 12 mins. The men’s C team battled round with the women’s A with Simon trying to hang on to Louise Mcleman on the first leg. Louise, making her club debut, stormed round to record the 4th equal fastest female time with 11:57, with Simon 12 seconds adrift. This then set off a battle on the second leg with Phill and Jessica having a sprint finish with Phill edging Jessica out in the final 20 metres. The two teams being separated by 4 places in the end with John and Lottie bringing both home teams with solid runs. The final JJ team of Sophie, Emma and Kate stormed round with Kate making her trademark sprint, ensuring the team were 9th women’s team to finish.
With the weather being humid, Lottie brought with her more reminders of XC with a lovely cake. The final relays of the year will be the Farringdon XC relays in September, and a chance to really test the winter legs and hopefully more cakes!
Men’s Race
6th JJs A Tom Dowling 10:20 Thomas Jake Archer 10:34 Ben Ben McMain 10:25 – 31:19
9th JJs B Niran Patel 11:00 Rob Kingston 10:49 Panay Herodotou 11:48 – 33:37
16th JJs C Simon Wells 12:09 Phill Carr 12:38. John Crosby 12:42 – 37:29
22 teams finished
Women’s Race
6th JJs A Louise McLeman 11:57 Jessica Tyerman 12:51 Lottie Rhodes 13:25 – 38:13
9th JJs B Sophie Reynolds 13:13 Emma Curtis 14:14 Kate Winstanley 13:46 – 41:13
15 teams finished.