Thirteen of us attended the Sprints Weekend on two of Bristol’s university campuses last weekend. Fortunately the record June temperatures dropped just a little bit, making running bearable!
The Club put forward 2 teams for the Mixed Sprint Relays on Saturday at Bristol University North Village:
- DVO Diamonds (Ad hoc): Murray, Judith H and Steve K
- DVO Dashers (SuperVeteran): Matt White, Karen White, Sal Chaffey
Our Captain, Sal Calland, was also running, but in an Army team, and was commended in the commentary for her “intense warm-up” in the start pen, for which she gave us all a nice wave! Their team came 4th, just 29 seconds behind BOK who got bronze.
As for DVO’s performance, the Dashers came 12th out of 25 plus a further 5 mis-punches, and the Diamonds 18th out of 25 plus 9 mis-punches/DNFs. Middle runner for Dashers, Karen said “I was a bit nervous at the start but really enjoyed myself once I got out.”
Rain on Sunday morning cleared the air, and we assembled for the Individual race on the University of Western England. As usual, there’s a Qualifier in the morning to determine who in each age class gets into the A or B Final. Then finalists are set off at one-minute intervals, the fastest starting last. This makes for an exciting finish; I was announced first over the line, but of course it didn’t last as there were five faster W60s chasing me!! Congratulations to winner Amanda Roberts of LOG!
Some DVO runners did, however, make the podium … John Duckworth was 3rd in M60, less that a minute behind CLARO’s Quentin Harding. Sal Calland also took 3rd in W50 as did Imogen in W14. Very well done to you all!
We’d been warned in the Final Details that there would be some indoor running, and that automatic doors would be ‘locked open’. Always good to be forewarned about this, as it’s disconcerting if you don’t know about it. The passageways made for a nice escape from the afternoon sun, as well as surprising a few students!
A great weekend of racing and socialising was had by all!
Sal Chaffey
