Archer's Aim Is True

CAMBRIDGE & COLERIDGE WOMEN AND ALDERSHOT MEN LAND SOUTH OF ENGLAND RELAY VICTORIES AT CRYSTAL PALACE

- Steve Smythe

ALDERSHOT’S men and Cambridge and Coleridge’s women took the honours at Crystal Palace with the latter’s Holly Archer producing the individual performance of the day.

The organisation, which while better than past years with improvements in results (though some were still sketchy as we went to press), marshalling and good quality officiating, could still see improvement in the course.

This year, the finish was better with an entrance to the track at a different gate, making it much safer for runners albeit cutting 200 metres plus off the course.

However, most of the races still did a hazardous, twisty and tough detour around a car park when there are better alternatives on the old motor circuit and in the rest of the Park.

The finish change meant it was the third different course in the third year the Palace has been used and most would prefer a fourth. A further change could result in a one-lap course as lapping and different races running at the same time and poor stadium acoustics made it difficult for runners and spectators to know what was going on.

With the difficulty which is faced by a number of competitors in travelling to this part of South London for the event, many would prefer a return to a two-day affair at Aldershot which was used unchanged from 1988 to 2015, making lap time comparisons meaningful.

Men

For Aldershot’s men it was their seventh win in the last decade as they retained the six-stage title in 1:41:11 by 40 seconds from Serpentine whose second place equalled their best ever result while Bedford took bronze a further 10 seconds back.

Shaftesbury, through Henry McLuckie (17:11), went ahead on leg two, though Jonathan EscalantePhilips of Cambridge was the big mover, advancing from 16th to second with a 16:26.

Aldershot were only sixth after two legs but Gus Cockle’s 16:47 took them ahead at the halfway stage.