Highgate Harriers' men were 12th in the 12-Stage and the women 8th in the 6-Stage in the Virtual National Road Relay Championships, held around the time the actual National Road Relays would have happened had they not been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The hope was to raise £5,000 for the National Health Service and by 11 April, £8,210 had been raised.
The main objective of the virtual competition was to give the distance runners of the UK something to aim for despite the lockdown. Each runner would run alone over a local 5km course while adhering to social distancing guidelines with a target of doing the fastest time they could muster. Individual efforts were then fed into a computer to give a full club team result.
The overall response was fantastic all round. For the women's 6-stage relay, Highgate placed 8th in 1:49.56, and the winners Herne Hill Harriers did 1:43.20. Regarding the men, they were 13th of 130 teams that completed. Highgate's time was 3:06.37 and the winning team was from Leeds City AC finished in 2:57.08.
Highgate's women’s team, in order of the fastest, comprised: Rebecca Johnson; Hannah Viner; Yasmin Goater; Emma MacAlister Hall; Emma Butcher; and Kari Hinshelwood. The men’s team, in order of fastest times, comprised: Alex Lepretre; Alex Crossland; Roger Poolman; Charlie Haywood; Shaun Dixon; Rob Wilson; Niki Faulkner; Alex Brampton; James Ross; Ash Chambers; Gareth Creagh; and Andre Chau.
13-Apr-2020 Alastair Aitken