This is a series of 5 rounds, with members from 12 invited Clubs competing for a shield at the end of the series. Several Clubs are longstanding members of this competition, and this year welcomed some new ones, including Coastal Striders.
Deal Tri fielded 7 male teams and 7 female teams, totalling 57 runners, with nobody left on the virtual bench. The mass start meant it looked extremely busy but the field soon started to thin out.
There were many exceptional runs by Deal Tri members, and the results have been promising. The Senior female team of Ellie Matthews, Verity Hodges and Holly Rye battled for 7th place in a very quick field of 15 teams. The female V45 A team of Abbie Robertson, Anita Pollard and Alana Smith secured 1st place in their age group in a fiercely competitive race with the B team (Bronwen Lafferty, Jane Wisbey and Eryka Smith) and C team Abi Darrell, Gaby Roch and Nic Carter finishing 5th and 11th respectively. In the V55 age group, Deal Tri A team of Jill Cliff, Louise Moore and Annette Nixon powered to first place, with not much between them and second place. The V55 B team (Tina Barton, Lorraine Lyons and Maria Harrington) finished 4th and the V55 C team of Jane Povey, Margaret Reidy and Rebecca Simox, finished 8th.
The male Senior team of Toby Smith, Ashley Roberts-Moyle, Richard Devereux and James Wisbey, had a similar fight on their hands, coming second by just 0.02 seconds after the host Club. In the next age group up, James Ellis, Stuart Phillips, Lee Gavin and Dave Gibb ran quickly but were knocked into 6th place in this round. In V50, 2 Deal Tri teams bagged a 3rd (Dave Pickup, Sean Richards, Stuart Dean) and 8th place (Graeme Rawlings, Dave Hoile, Ian Gavin) each, in a field of 15 teams. In the V60 age group, there were 3 orange teams, coming home in 3rd (Mark Baldock, Dave Chapman-Jones and Steve Child), 8th (Tony Ansell, Kev Brown and Dave Adam) and 9th (Dave Martin, Dave Gill and Tony Ansell) out of 13 teams, with Tony Ansell running twice in different teams – no mean feat in the sunshine and heat!
Deal Tri are lucky to have a spread of age groups in the membership, which meant that we only had to sit out one age group team (female V35) this week.
Thank you to Folkestone Running & Athletics Club for hosting us, a brilliant, fun event. We are looking forward to building on this strong start at the next round on 27th May at the meet hosted by Dover Road Runners.
