BRJ Results 22/02/08 – Mike Gullis

BRJ’ers made returns to Bury Field, Doddington Hall, Grovelands, March & Whittlesey. No Club PB’s were achieved at these venues.

There were 4 BRJ Venue debuts at Lytham Hall (Maureen Wickson), Strathclyde, Scotland (Stuart Turner), Torvean, Scotland  (Stuart Ainsworth) & Wynnum Brisbane, Australia (Anna & Clive Best).

At Huntingdon, new member Ian Lasseter made his Club 5K debut & a Frostbite debut the following day, William Dales completed Parkrun #100 & both Mel Gearing & Alice Noyes #250.

Kerry Surkitt completed her 4th full Marathon of 2022 finishing in 12th position of the 18 participants in 5:28:12 (46.33% Age Grading).

Round #5 (of 6) hosted by Bourne Town Harriers took place at what turned out to be a sunny Bourne Woods. This Frostbite venue has been in use since 1996, but for 2022 on-going Forestry Work necessitated a slight diversion to the usual routes. The couple of spells of rain a few days before race day made the course slippery in places, but was far less muddy as in most previous years, excepting of course for the diversion section!

The final event of the 2021/2022 Frostbite Season takes place on Sunday 13th March at Jubilee Park, Huntingdon. The season closer is historically hosted by the BRJ & as it is our “Home” fixture, it would be great to have maximum attendance by both Junior & Senior members. In addition, your Frostbite Officer (Claire Few) will almost certainly require your assistance with the logistics involved in staging this event so you should watch out for a communication from Claire. Many of these logistic tasks would be particularly suitable for those members that may not wish to take part in the run itself which has the benefit of freeing up those members that would prefer to participate.

Of the 90 finishers, BRJ fielded 5 athletes (3 Boys & 2 Girls). The club is indebted to Emily Marshall-Roberts who chose this event to run both her Frostbite & Club debuts to make up the minimum number required to obtain a team score. Despite her dirty new trainers, she was still smiling during her sprint to the finish.

In a reverse of Race 4’s finish positions, Josh Spavins out-sprinted Freya Harris to become our lead finisher. Freya was again 2nd Girl overall & was rewarded with a venue PB by a margin of just over 1 minute. The remainder of the squad debuted at this venue. The respective finish positions for both Henry Reeve & Katie Lasseter mirrored those of Race 4.

Our squads efforts secured 8th position on the day, meaning they go into Race 6 in 6th place overall in the League Table & just 2 League Points behind 5th place Yaxley who were 3rd on the day. A good Junior turnout will give a great chance of overtaking Yaxley at the final event of this season.

Of the 303 finishers, the BRJ squad comprised 20 (12 Men & 8 Women). Keelan Duffy was again the lead BRJ finisher & his 8th place finish was even more remarkable as he failed to bring his Trail Shoes thus lost traction & a few race positions, during the diverted section of the course. Despite these challenges, Keelan secured a 2 Min venue PB. Although Will Dales found his debut at the course quite tough, his reward was an excellent top 30 finish. From the remaining Men scorers, Alex Mitton, Paul Mitton & Richard Orrell all secured venue PB’s. Neil Whitaker, thankfully shook off the leg injury that forced him to withdraw from Race #4, to feature amongst the scorers,

Marcela Gracova was again our lead Woman & was also 1st overall in what was her venue debut. Marcela’s time places her as fastest BRJ Woman for this venue surpassing the previous best set by Shelley Duffy back in 2019 by 2 Mins 2 Secs. Felicity Baillie, and the ever improving Heledd Marshall-Roberts, put in string performances & replicated their finish positions as Team scorers at Race 4.

Juliet Aungier, Tom Brand & Ian Wilson all secured venue PB’s. The “unluckiest” BRJ’er was Ian Lasseter who missed out as a Team scorer on his club debut by just 2 Secs.

Our squad secured a well deserved 4th place on the day & so remain in 4th position in the League Table. After Race 4, Riverside Runners were in the bronze medal position on 46 points and PANVAC in 5th wth the same points number. At Bourne, Riverside finished in 6th place thus relegating them to 5th position in the League Table behind BRJ. PANVAC must be keen to secure the bronze medal at Race 6 & fielded a particularly strong team, finishing in 2nd place at Bourne & now sit 3rd in the League Table. For BRJ to steal the bronze place at Race #6 & replicate last seasons finish position, BRJ must finish a minimum of 3 places above PANVAC. This gap will not be easy to close, but is entirely possible if we get a good turnout from across the membership.

Race: Junior Frostbite #5 – Bourne Town Harriers (1.5 Miles)     Date: 6/02/22   Nos of Finishers: 90
Position	Name	Time	Notes
21	Joshua Spavins	00:09:34	Debut @ Venue + Team Scorer
24	Freya Harris	00:09:40	PB @ Venue + Team Scorer
32	Henry Reeve	00:09:54	Debut @ Venue + Team Scorer
53	Katie Lasseter	00:11:01	Debut @ Venue + Team Scorer
88	Emily Marshall-Roberts	00:14:32	Debut @ Venue + Team Scorer