Hyde Park Relays 2007
Owain Bristow
Three CUH&H teams made there way down to London on the 10th to join squirrels, pigeons and playful dogs in running around Hyde Park. As usual the men's course was run over laps of 5.164km while the ladies raced over the slightly shorter distance of 3.464km. Both sets of competitors making a tour round the Serpentine, before the ladies branched off to get in a bonus 'hill', with the men snaking their way around a bandstand and a tremendously long finishing straight. With BUSA only a week previously, the shortness of the course came as a surprise to many of the Haries, but with the indoor championships only a month away it represented a good sharpener for the 3000m and everyone else could treat it as a VO2 max boosting tempo run!
The men's event began first and James Kelly lead off for Cambridge on a leg stacked with GB Internationals and all-round quality athletes. After a fast and physical start for the runners, Ben Moreau of Oxford took command and 'won' the stage in the day's fastest time of 15:11. The Dark Blues would go on to finish fourth overall behind an emphatic win from the St Mary's squad. Kelly, holding a self-confessed preference for middle-distance had an excellent run to come in fourth, setting the fourth fastest time of the day with a very impressive 15:40. He finished just behind Matt Ashton; a sub 30min 10k runner... who didn't stop at the handover Andy Duncan took over the fictional baton and, after a close encounter with a traffic cone, held the team's position with a 17:11 leg. Solid efforts from Rich Mathie (18:07), Phil Scard (giving his old-style minty green vest one last outing with 17:52) and late call-up Chris Morris (18:49), saw Cambridge lying somewhere around 7th place. Owain Bristow rounded things off on the last leg to bring the team home in 5th, nineteen seconds behind Oxford, with a time of 16:16, up twenty-four seconds on last year.
At the same time the ladies' teams were making their way around the park. Claire Day made a good start in an equally high quality first-leg field, handing over to Helen Mort in 8th place after twelve minutes and forty eight seconds of running. Helen kept the team in contention with a 13:36 leg to pass on to Charlotte Forbes. Although not a fan of short races, Charlotte set the team's fastest time of 12:42. On the last leg a slightly under-the-weather Polly Keen produced a 13:09 effort to secure Cambridge 4th overall and overtake the Oxford girls. This was a big advance on 2005 (no team!) and 2006 (11th place). The race was won by Birmingham from St Mary's, although as with the men, Oxford's Courtney Birch set the day's fastest time of 11:23 on the first stage. The Cambridge ladies also got one over on the men by running a B team in the race. Cat Mactier (14:15), Karla Borland (14:33), and Laura Dixon (14:00) all put in good performances and Claire Day doubled up with a consistent 12:51 at the end to finish the team in 9th place.
Cambridge's teams now lie in competitive positions in the national University Relays series, with Oxford's Teddy Hall Relays to come next month. Hopefully by then the light blues will be less ill and injured and ready to take on our eternal rivals in their own backyard. Don't miss out!