Week Ending - 2021/01/17
BADGERS MAKE TOP 100 IN EA VIRTUAL ROAD RELAYS
With the Covid pandemic freezing out running races as we know them, England Athletics launched their 5-mile road relays competition recently in which clubs entered their fastest twelve runners over a five-mile distance. As is the norm with this type of events, runners ran solo over courses chosen by themselves, often flat and local, with ratification taking part over applications such as Strava and Garmin Connect amongst others. Any number of registered club runners were able to enter with captain Lil Souter submitting the fastest six male and female times across at the deadline. Followers of these pages will be unsurprised to once again see the super quick Aaron Chetwynd featuring prominently. The Baddesley man continued his stunning 2020 form with a swift effort of 27:58. Fellow Baddesley based Badger Matt Scarsbrook was another to pull out a quality time running 28:27 in his attempt to earn himself a place inside the top 300, not a bad achievement given there were around two and a half thousand participants. Gnarled veteran in waiting Adi Payne was next back in 30:03, a cracking time from the craggy-faced electrical engineer while it was another Baddesley fellow to follow him home as the self-proclaimed Jackal of Jean, Dave Jackson, sped back in 30:48, one of the top 100 veteran athletes strutting their wrinkly stuff.
Jimmy Dewis enjoyed something of a stellar sporting career prior to joining Badgers. He was a renowned footballer, cricketer, triathlete and raconteur, so it comes as no shock to see him performing well on the running scene too, here he ran superbly for his time of 34:16. Wayne Repton did well in 41:24 and for once, the men were outnumbered by the Badgers ladies. Cheryl Dewis is arguably the fastest V50 athlete in club history and she romped back in 37:37, the only lady to break 40 minutes. The brilliant Becky Harris ran quickly but GPS watch issues meant she was unable to declare a valid time sadly. Keyworker Emma Masser put in a shift as she shifted round in 40:02, an excellent time with Lil Souter leading by example setting a PB of 41:00 in her race. The evergreen Pip Weston did not disappoint as she hared round in 41:29, earning one of the best age-graded performances of the week and the highest age-category finish of all Badgers in 22nd place. The much-improved Jo Hardy went well in a brisk 42:59 with a resurgent Kerry Clover continuing to produce some of her very best times with a rapid 43:09. Sharon Jackson (45:00) and Mandi Stain (47:05) also ran well as she bagged 41st in her age group. Monika Lampart put in a solid run too but fell foul of the entry requirements as she miscalculated her distance, one of a handful of Badger runners that operates in kilometres as opposed to miles.
As a result, the Badgers team finished 96th overall up against some impressive competition from across the midlands.