Newport Harriers
National 6 Stage Road Relay Championships
The ERRA National 6-Stage Road Relay Championships
Sutton Park, Birmingham 16th October 2010
Newport make progress on national stage
Newport’s senior men contested the English National Championships for the first time since 2007. These championships are one of the highlights of the road running calendar, drawing all of the top clubs, and this year’s event featured international athletes who have competed at the European Championships and Commonwealth Games.
Such is the high standard that in 2007 Newport Harriers finished 79th out of 79 teams, so our target today was to finish anything other than in last place. To achieve this, our tactics were to gain a foothold after the first four legs then hope Lee Richards and Darryn McAtee could hold on.
Penny and Morgan get stuck in
Stepping up to senior road relays for the first time, Emrys Penny bravely volunteered for the super-fast Leg 1 and established a solid position in 61st place out of 82 teams. Johnathan Morgan on Leg 2 built on Emrys’ good start to pick off two athletes and advance us to 60th place. With just a second between their times Emrys and Johnathan were Newport’s two fastest runners on the day.
Tulu and Carpanini keep the middle-order intact
Abdi Tulu should have been resting today for the Cardiff Half-Marathon the following day but instead made the trip to Sutton Park and maintained form on Leg 3, dropping one place to 61st. Like Emrys, Chris Carpanini also stepped up to senior relay competition and met the challenge superbly, advancing Newport to 59th place. Abdi and Chris recorded our 3rd and 4th best times respectively to fulfil our tactical plan.
Richards and McAtee hang on for grim life
The tail end took over for the final two legs in the form of Lee Richards and Darryn McAtee. This is where we knew we would drop places, but did we have sufficient cushion over the chasing teams to gain a respectable finish?
Lee Richards was drafted into the team late when James Nasrat withdrew due to illness, and took the brunt of the charging pack on Leg 5, but crucially he clocked a time which gave us some hope that we could hold off the stragglers. When Darryn McAtee set off on Leg 6 we were 72nd with seven more teams still in the waiting pen, so there was some scope for optimism. Gloucester picked off Newport half way round the course, followed by Harborough and Salford, but Darryn held off the fast-finishing Bromsgrove & Redditch with five seconds to spare for a final position of 75th out of 79 completed teams.
Success is relative
While Eritrea’s finest were trying to win the title for Shettleston,
Newport’s performance might have been a mere footnote to the main event,
but for us this was success on several levels.
We were one of only three Welsh teams contesting this year’s
Championships, demonstrating that, together with Cardiff and Swansea, we
can compete effectively on track, road and country.
Our 75th position was an advance on last time and exorcised the glumness from that earlier experience. What’s more, with some of our injured athletes fit again next year and some talented juniors becoming eligible for the senior relay, we can look forward to a much improved performance in the future.
On an individual level, each of our athletes were unfazed by the high standard of competition and enjoyed the race experience. In particular, Darryn McAtee did a quick calculation – 79 teams x 6 athletes per team = 474 athletes – and was relieved to see that he managed to record the 473rd fastest time of the day.
75th Newport Harriers 2:05:15 (79 teams completed)
| Leg | Athlete | Time |
| 1 | Emrys Penny | 19:14 |
| 2 | Johnathan Morgan | 19:13 |
| 3 | Abdi Tulu | 19:40 |
| 4 | Chris Carpanini | 20:00 |
| 5 | Lee Richards | 23:07 |
| 6 | Darryn McAtee | 24:01 |