Coe Fen Relays 2006
By Aidan Brown
Sunday, February 26th: the picturesque Coe Fen swarmed with dozens of runners, scattering geese, and keeping the tourists on their toes.This is the shortest race of the college league, at four legs of 3km for men, and three of the same for women. Men and women went off together. Just round the bend, there was a small upset with a pushchair, without injury. The runners vanished into the trees, to complete a quick triangle before reappearing onto the tarmac of Coe Fen. Lee Harper (9:30) was first out of the trees, with a good nine yards on Matt Sims (9:34) of Robinson and Rich Hewitt (9:35) of Jesus. As they disappeared over a narrow footbridge, more panting runners appeared, Matt Young (10:22) of Queens' and Roman Roth (10:47) of Peterhouse among them. Peterhouse, even though the smallest college, still managed to field two full men's teams, the only college to do so. Five minutes later, after a few peculiar loops round playgrounds and tennis courts, Harper appeared once more, sprinting along Fen Causeway. Just clear of Sims, he dashed down the home straight to hand over to Duncan Cameron (11:56), and take a quick break before running Clare's 4th leg.
A minute later, Catharine Wood (11:17) of Queens flashed into sight on Fen Causeway, with Tricia Peters(11:33) of Darwin, and the mysterious Harriet Owles(11:35), hot on her heels. A few seconds later, we witnessed one of the more dramatic moments of the day, with Emma Figures (11:57) and Silke Pichler (11:57) sprinting hell for leather, together towards the line. Pichler, who on Saturday finished 126th of 444 in the Cross Country Nationals, and had already run for 20 miles on Sunday morning, rounded the day off, after handing over to Charlotte Forbes(11:11) of Girton, with an eight mile warm down to Bait's Bite and back. Forbes, meanwhile, waltzed past the competition in the fastest individual time, leaving the combined Fitzwilliam and Girton team 50 yards ahead after the second leg. In the third leg, however Trinity swept through the field into clear first place with three sub-twelve-minute runs from Sarah Kummerfeld (11:36), Erica Thompson (11:47), and Joan Lasenby (11:19). Some steady running from Katie Robinson (13:03) and Lara Wood(12:04) kept Queens' in a good second place following Captain Catharine's magnificent first leg. Just three seconds behind, Lucy Greaves(12:13) pounded home for a combined Darwin, Wolfson and Newnham time of 36:27. Two mixed teams followed closely, with Trinity's second team, St. Catharine's and Emmanuel bringing up the year. Emmanuel's team was set to be a mixed team right up to the line, when Liz Gillenwater (15:17) appeared to run the 2nd leg. Ali Connell (09:28) , of Emma, caused much confusion among the timekeepers when he set off, all on his own, to complete a single second lap.
Jesus crossed the line first in the men's race, with a blazing 4th leg from Will George (9:21). Alex Macintosh (9:22) of Queens', at just a second over George's time, couldn't quite close the gap created by Jesus' Pete Leek (9:58) and Chris Morris (10:28). The next team, Girton (41:08), came in well over a minute behind the leaders. Downing's Mark Aldred, however, got lost, and ran a much shorter last lap. After some discussion, he was awarded the reasonable time of ten minutes, and Downing (41:59) were granted 4th place, just ahead of Caius (42:19) and Robinson (42:37). This leaves Jesus 4 points ahead of Queens' coming in to the last race of the college league with Girton trailing by 3 points. Selwyn, meanwhile, faces a tough battle against relegation: they will have to win the Selwyn relays to have any hope of staying up.