Ealing Eagles competed in the Welsh Castles Relay hosted by Les Croupiers Running Club over the weekend of 10 and 11 June 2017.
The Welsh Castles Relay is a 2 day, 20 stage, 206 mile relay race from Caernarfon to Cardiff. The event has grown since its inception in 1982 and this year 64 teams competed across four categories – ‘open’, ‘ladies’, ‘masters’ and ‘business house’.
The Eagles have competed in the relay since 2013, and in this year’s event the club entered teams in both the open and ladies categories. The open team improved on last year’s 12th place, eventually finishing in 7th place overall with a time of 22 hours 19 minutes and 59 seconds. The ladies team equalled their placing from last year and took 2nd place in their category with a time of 25 hours 39 minutes and 12 seconds.
Open team captain Kieran Santry said: “This year’s performance far exceeded my expectations. We did very well to finish in 13th place last year. It was consistency that got us up to 7th place out of 66 teams. The overall times were much quicker this year than in other years, which makes the team's placing even more impressive. The standard at the top end of the field is very high and includes many ex-national champions and record holders. We got 20 outstanding performances from 20 guys who gave 100% and that’s all you can ask for.”
Ladies team captain Jennifer Watt said: “When we first brought a women's team to the Castles, the goal was not to come last in the ladies’ category. That was back in 2014 and we didn’t finish last - we were 7th (out of 10 teams) in a total time of 28:33. In 2015 we finished 4th in 27:54. But it wasn’t until last year, 2016, when we had our real breakthrough; we ran more than hour and half quicker than 2015 bringing our total time down to 26:16 and bagging second place - only 26 minutes behind the winners, the Les Croupiers ladies. This year the team ran 37 minutes quicker - finishing in second place on the podium in total time of 25:39 and proving that last year was no fluke.”
The full teams of runners and their times were:
Stage 1 9.1 Miles Claire Morris 1:09:03 Harry Claxton 1:02:55
Stage 2 10.7 Miles Yvonne Linney 1:15:45, Tom Rowles 1:02:27
Stage 3 12.3 Miles Harriet Betteridge 1:34:00 Colin Overton 01:15:16
Stage 4 9.5 Miles Malgorzata 1:11:36 Bernard Sexton 01:01:54
Stage 5 9.6 Miles Lucy Rigg 01:18:11, Phill Turner 01:08:35
Stage 6 6.9 Miles Michelle Verbossche 01:19:19, Rob Willin 01:13:30
Stage 7 10.7 Michelle Tanner 01:19:35, Ewan Fryatt 01:03:37
Stage 8 10.8 Miles Jenny Bushell 01:20:11, Chris Wiciak 01:08:36
Stage 9 9.6 Miles Kira King 00:58:41, Chris Lambert 00:51:33
Stage 10 13.1 Miles Sarah Bailey 01:31:55 Tom Easten 01:21:27
Stage 11 12.3 Miles Jen Watt 01:32:38, Matt Kaufman 01:19:30
Stage 12 11.2 Miles Olivia Parker-Scott 01:23:04 Mike Lawrence 01:10:04
Stage 13 10.6 Miles Emily Schmidt 01:19:14 Kieran Santry 01:09:23
Stage 14 10.8 Miles Ellen Easten 01:24:03 Andy Guy 01:21:18
Stage 15 12.8 Miles Francesca Cooper 01:26:05 Kieran Morrisroe 01:20:25
Stage 16 8.8 Miles Sarah Mackenzie 01:14:14 Jose Manuel Pabon 55:41
Stage 17 9.2 Miles Kelly Scanlon 01:01:40 Raf Mac 56:31
Stage 18 9.1 Miles Sophie Foxall 01:10:40 Greg Lawes 01:00:15
Stage 19 7.7 Miles Elizabeth Adams 01:06:23 Ralph Dadswell 01:00:34
Stage 20 10.7 Miles Rebecca Jackson 01:06:23 John Foxall 01:00:34
