Onward and upward. Kent AC's best ever performance in the National Road Relays in Birmingham to come 12th. Jermaine selected to run for Great Britain in Japan.

On Saturday 21st October the National 6 stage road relay championship was held in Sutton Coldfield; this historic event draws together the 80 best teams in the country who have won qualification from their regional championships and each of the six team members run a 3.6mile course. Kent AC have regularly qualified for the event and have steadily improved over the years, yesterday was no exception.

It fell to team captain Andrew Dunwoody to take on the first leg which with its mass start usually becomes a scramble for decent road space in which to run. Andrew managed to keep out of trouble and returned with a magnificent time of 18m 33s and put the club into 41st place.

Ex Sedgehill pupil and reigning AAA steeplechaser champion Jermaine Mays took up the baton and fresh from his GB international duties in Gothenberg proceeded to take the field apart. With extremely confident running he stormed past 32 runners and in the fourth fastest time of the day lifted the Ladywell Arena based club into 9th place.

Irish international Noel Pollock after a nightmare journey up the M1 was barely warmed up as Jermaine came in to hand over and consequently struggled for the first half of his leg and dropped 4 places until the last 800yards when with a late burst of energy he forced his way past two top teams to return in 11th place.

Next up was James Connor an old school mate to Jermaine who held his nerve running a fine quality leg and held on to 11th place fully justifying his selection to represent the south of England in Denmark next month

The fifth leg fell to Simon Taylor, now based in Bexley on a work placement from Northern Ireland, who fully justified his late selection by running 18.45 and handing over in 12th place.

The anchor leg was taken by new recruit Michael Claff who had to hold his nerve in a fiercely competitive phase where he beat last week's winner of the Metropolitan league and finished in 12th place; and yet again a best ever result.

Further satisfaction came with the news that both local rival teams of Blackheath and Bromley Harriers and Maidstone and Medway AC had been comfortably beaten.

Team manager Ken Pike said ”Another best ever result putting us in the top dozen clubs in the country, the big boys are looking over their shoulders when we appear in National championships”

Icing on the cake materialised during the train journey back to London when Jermaine Mays received a text message with the news of his selection for the GB squad to compete in the Ekiden road relays in Japan in November. There he will be taking the anchor leg pitting hmself against the likes of Kenyans, Ethiopians and the USA, we wish him the very best of luck.

Barry Dix
Kent AC Press Secretary