Matt Gumby

Ups and downs of British weather for Woodford Green

Simon Jackson Friday, September 28, 2012
9:00 AM

Two days, two types of weather, but still an 11th place finish for Woodford Green athletes.

Woodford Green AC with Essex Ladies men’s and women’s teams both finished 11th in their respective races in Aldershot that were staged in completely contrasting weather conditions.

On Saturday, the women’s team was bathed in sunshine as they contested the South of England Four-stage Road Relay at Rushmore Arena. But the weather had turned cold wet and windy by the time the men’s team set out on the South of England Six-stage Road Relay the next day.

The women’s team started well against 49 other teams as Emily Moss clocked a solid time of 14 minutes and 10 seconds to secure a mid-order position for her team.

Katherine Gundersen continued the good work as she picked off the second leg runners to finish in 14.21 and improve their position by 10 places. And Woodford had improved their position to 17th when Rachel Lund (14.55) handed over to Lauren Stewart.

Stewart boosted their standing by another six places when she clocked the club’s fastest leg time of the day to secure a creditable 11th place finish.

But the weather conditions had changed dramatically on Sunday when the men’s team took on 65 other squads on what was now a difficult track, hampered by water on the surface.

Matt Gunby was Woodford’s fastest man and 16th quickest overall on a day where Daniel Bruynooghe clocked a first-leg time of 19.51 to leave the team in 36th place.

On leg two, 17-year-old James Stockings ran well on his senior debut as he maintained 36th place with a time of 19.57.

But several placings went astray when Harun Abdi lost 10 seconds at the start.

Yet he quickly made amends by running the fast time of 19.19 to lift them to 25th place, before Martyn Cryer further boosted their position when running a sub-19 minute time to leave them 15th.

On leg five, Gunby started well and caused plenty of excitement in the Woodford squad when he caught Shaftesbury’s quick young runner Michael Callegari within the opening minutes and went on to record 18.28 to lift them to 11th place.

Matt Shone clocked 18.54 in the final leg to secure that position.