News_

Southern V55 Relay Champions

Monday 26th September 2022

Never mind Mo Farah’s sprint to gold on “Super Saturday” in London on the 6th August 2012 – this was a “Super Saturday” in Aldershot on the 24th September, and an equally exciting sprint for gold by our very own Steve Atkinson…

First, the background. These were the prestigious Aldershot, Farnham and District road relays, held in a historic military venue which, for seniors, count as a South of England qualifier for the National 6-stage Champs. For the V55s it was 4 legs of 6k over a rolling (distinctly hilly to the three track racers in the team!) and predominantly paved course of 2 laps of 3km each.

Brighton Phoenix fielded Adrian Haines, Geoff Pike, Phil Grabsky and Steve Atkinson. Steve and Adrian are V55 British champs at 400m, 800m & 1500m, but they will tell you that 6km is an entirely different matter! Anyway, having made his pre-race excuses, Adrian headed off on the first leg and had a very strong run, breaking up the V55 field to leave 3 teams in serious medal contention. At the first handover to Geoff, Phoenix had a slim lead from Aldershot (AFD) and Reading. Geoff had a tight battle with AFD throughout his 6k, determined to help win his first ever athletic medal, and showed if push comes to shove triathletes can run a bit too!

Geoff handed over to Phil alongside AFD. Meanwhile, Reading had put some distance on both teams. Phil made an 800m track start and shot past AFD on the first hill, but his injury-dogged late season began to tell and AFD – who put their best runner on third leg – overtook with 2km to go and pulled away. However, Reading led the field by some 90 seconds when Phil handed over to Steve on the final leg.

To make up 90 seconds over 6k is a tall order but if anyone was going to have a chance, it was Steve. After the first k he had the lead down to 1:15. By 3k he’d passed AFD and Reading’s lead was down to around 50 seconds. Into the last k, Steve still had around 20 seconds to make up – his teammates spread around the course shouting him on all had now rushed back across the fields to the final home stretch, thinking there might be a bit too much to do…but who would be coming up the hill for that final 100m fighting for first place? It was Steve! With only 20 metres to go, he passed Reading and led Phoenix to Gold.

Everyone worked their socks off but Steve’s run was extraordinary.