West Suffolk AC celebrated winning their first-ever medals at the South of England Road Relay Championships, thanks to the efforts of their senior women’s quartet at Crystal Palace Park last Sunday.
The team of Holly Archer, Emily Moyes, Justine Anthony and Megan Newton won the bronze medals to produce the performance of the day.
Archer had just returned from five years on a sports scholarship at SMU in Texas, and in the past has been a two-times contender over 1,500m at the British championships, while Moyes is a junior Team GB steeplechaser.
Anthony was also just back from a sports scholarship at SMU, and Newton, although new to senior level, has a background in English Schools and was a winner of the recent Twilight 10K in Ipswich.
It was therefore a young but very experienced team.
Archer set-off on the first 4,500m leg, around the park, staying clear of trouble to handover in sixth place with a time of 12mins 34secs. This was the 16th fastest leg of the whole race.
Moyes was fresh from a long track season which included representing Junior Team GB at the European Under-20 Championships in Grossetto. She worked equally hard on the second leg, handing over in second place with a 12:30 clocking (11th fastest leg).
Anthony battled around her third leg in 13:37 and Newton fought it out with Cambridge & Coleridge for the silver medals, Aldershot & Farnham being well clear in the lead.
Newton clocked 13:00 to finish just 12-seconds between the Cambridge quartet in third slot, to secure the Bury St Edmunds-based club’s first-ever medals at this prestigious event.
Other West Suffolk AC results:
Under-13 girls ‘A’ (29th team): Eva Marshall 10:49, Molly Howell 11:54 & Lorna Coull 10:54: Under-13 girls ‘B’ (47th team): Amelie Taylor 10:51, Marni Sillitoe 11:54 & Amber Walton 13:17.
Under-15 girls (51st team): Chloe Cavill 11:23, Rebecca Morely 11:03 & Libby Stinson 12:11. Under-17 girls (26th team): Liv Allum 9:50 (sixth place), Cathy Mckeag 12:02 & Libby Walshe 11:42. Under-17 men (incomplete team): Cameron Ackroyd 12:03 & Callum Long 14:48.
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