Heanor Running Club successfully defended the Livingston Relay title in dramatic fashion at Braunstone Park, Leicestershire last weekend as the quartet of Tim Holling, Joe Rainsford, James Mee and Chris Rainsford combined to snatch victory in the final half-mile.
Eight teams turned out in a typically strong yellow and blue showing, including three women’s teams, four men’s and one U15 girls trio, which also saw Lily Winfield record the fourth-fastest female time of the day overall.
Lily lead the U15 girls to fourth place in the junior standings. Mollie O’Hanlon (21:14) and Harriett Bull (23:50) concluded the promising young trio’s efforts among the five complete teams.
The prestigious event has seen such names as Tipton Harriers, OWLS AC and Coventry Godiva take the men’s title over the course of its eighty-seven year history. 2014 saw Heanor RC etch their name on the trophy for the first time.
Hopes of a repeat last Sunday were high albeit less confident than twelve months ago.
Tim Holling set the ball rolling on leg one and clocked 16:31 over the rolling 3 mile parkland course to come home 8th.
Joe Rainsford gobbled up the field and charged his way through to second by the end of leg two. Joe’s time of 15:09 finished the day fifth-fastest overall.
With the team still almost one minute off Charnwood AC in first, James Mee (15:35) closed the gap on the long-time leaders to just sixteen seconds.
Handing over to Chris Rainsford on final leg, the gap remained the same approaching the final hill just one kilometre from the finish. Chris hauled himself onto the shoulder of the leader with half a mile to go and kicked for the finish to secure a hard-fought victory by seven seconds.
Chris’ time of 14:41 was also the second-fastest of the day and one of only three inside fifteen minutes for the distance.
The women’s trio of Claire Smith, Louise Insley and Jill Burke improved on the club’s fifth-place finish last year to claim bronze as Charnwood AC reversed the order in the men’s event to secure gold.
Kicking proceedings off on opening leg, Claire clocked 18:24 to hand over to Louise in second. The team remained in the silver-medal winning position with just the final leg to run following Louise’s 18:22 effort. The HRC opening pair were split by just two seconds and finished the day sixth- and fifth-fastest of the day respectively.
Jill Burke (19:52) anchored the side home but was pipped to the post in similar fashion to the Barrow Runners lady on leg three as the trio finished third by a close five seconds.
Separated by just seventeen seconds after over seventy minutes of running, the Heanor RC “B” and “C” women’s teams finished side-by-side in 26th and 27th.
In what was a record number of 117 team for the event, Rose Leivers (28:03), Karen O’Hanlon (22:02) and Kirsty Hessey (23:48) combined to finish 26th. Nikki Dunbar (21:33), Danielle De Simone (25:38), and Laura Beth James-Hutchinson (26:59), just one week on from her 3:24:49 personal best at the London Marathon, finished one position behind.
New recruit, Dean Taylor (16:34), set the tone for the Heanor RC “B” team with tenth-place on the opening leg – the same position the team finished up following the efforts of Gordy Smith (16:50), Andy Parkin (17:39) and Josh Housley (19:13).
Top-20 for the “C” team was secured thanks to Rob Page (18:42), Myles O’ Hanlon (20:24), Matt Govan (19:01) and Paul Mercer (21:07).
The “D” quartet claimed 23rd spot out of 34 complete sides. As one of only four clubs to field four senior teams, consistency was key as just ninety seconds split the combined endeavours of Paul Winfield (20:08), Scott Wigman (20:17), Eamon O’Hanlon (21:10) and Carl Hughes (19:42).
Full results HERE