RSSH celebrate successful King Henry VIII Relay event

We were delighted to return to the War Memorial Park in Coventry on Wednesday for the 50^th Anniversary edition of the King Henry VIII Relays.

A version of this was staged last year in remote, and at the time we were extremely grateful for any competition of any sort, given the term we’d had, but it fell well short of the exhilaration of real, live racing, and this Relays event is in my opinion the most exciting schools cross country event in the country. Everyone does the same 3.7km route around the park, a majority of which is on tarmac but with some lengthy grass and wooded sections. The boys’ teams complete six legs, while the girls only four.

The RSSH has considerable pedigree in this event, the boys’ team having not slipped out of the top ten since 2010 and having been in the top five most of those years. Indeed, our boys’ team won the event back in the 1990s and have been striving to emulate that achievement ever since! The best performance by the girls was back in 2013 when we placed fourth.

Despite a few cases of illness and injury getting in the way, we still managed to field two strong teams for both the boys’ and the girls’ races, though it was a rather inexperienced group given that last year’s race hadn’t taken place.

Our Senior Whip, Harrison C (R, UVI) and George H (O, LVI) got our boys’ A and B teams underway respectively, setting off at a sensible pace and moving through the pack. There were some tremendously fast times among these opening-leg runners (the fastest of them, a Sedbergh runner called Fraser Sproul, ran the second-fastest time in the history of the event!) and Harrison did brilliantly to post a time of 11.35, which was enough to get us into 7^th position and was just outside the fastest ten times of all runners on the day. George was a bit further back, but still crossed the line in a very respectable time of 13:39 to put our B team in around 30^th place.

Meanwhile, our girls’ opening-leg runners set off, Tabitha W (G, UVI) for the A team and Eva H (G, LVI) for the B team. Again, the pace at the front was very quick indeed (many schools put their strongest runner on the opening leg) but both girls ran very well and put us in contention around the middle of the field, with times of 15:54 and 16:27 respectively.

The boys’ second-leg runners were 5^th formers Brad K (R,) and Archie T (Rt). Brad held on well to maintain our position, posting a very strong time of 12:25, while Archie came through the pack very well and gained over five places with his time of 13:21. Brad handed over to 4^th former Harry P-M (I), who ran beautifully to make up four places and leave us in 3^rd. Another 4^th former, Dom W (Rb), managed a similar feat for the B team, running the 13^th-fastest third leg of all in 13:27.

Tabitha had handed the girls’ A team baton to Kate R (EDH, UVI), who picked up a couple of places and brought the team into the top twenty at the change in a time of 16:07, handing over to Iris D (G, LVI). Mari A (G, LVI) ran very strongly for the B team, finishing over a minute quicker (17:19) than her time trial over the same course the previous week! She handed over to 5^th former Ellie L-L (MSH) for the third leg, who completed the course in 16:57. Meanwhile, Iris was tearing through the field, picking up places all along the route, and finishing in a time of 13:14, which turned out to be the 7^th fastest time of anyone on the day.

Our boys’ fourth leg was run by another 4^th former, Jack K (PH), who was fresh from posting a new PB of 2:00.49 for 800m on Saturday at the London Indoor Open Athletics Championships. He carried this form into this race and continued to hold on to our third position and even stretched a bit of a lead from the chasing pack behind. He handed over the Kristian T (I, LVI), who felt like death that morning but had nevertheless been determined to give everything for the team. His time of 12:02 meant that we had a decent cushion of around 35 seconds going into the last leg. Meanwhile, Massimo W (Ph,V) was making good ground for the B team, as they found themselves in around 25^th place after his 14:02, when he handed over to fellow 5^th former Tim S (I) for the fifth leg. Tim is still getting back to fitness after a bit of illness last month, but he still managed a strong time of 13:25, giving Hamish G (PH, V) plenty to chase down for the final leg.

The girls’ A team anchor leg was run by Huntswoman Sophia U (EDH, LVI), who has come into the form of her life in recent weeks. She ran an incredibly gutsy run, posting 14:02 and taking three places on her leg to finish 9^th for the team, our best girls’ finish at this event since 2015. In fact, our aggregate course time was our fastest-ever, beating our 2015 time by just under 40 seconds. The B team’s last leg was run by Anna B (EDH, LVI) in 16:29, which was enough to finish 29^th overall and 10^th among the B teams.

Our Huntsman, Jonny P (I, UVI), was aware that he had a battle on his hands – first and second positions were well ahead of us with no chance of catching them, but his third place was under serious threat. He gave it everything he had, but his quick time of 12:14 wasn’t enough to prevent being overtaken by a Calday Grange runner who went on to post the sixth-fastest time of the day in 11:19. However, at this very moment, news came through that the race leaders, Abingdon, had fielded an ineligible team on the grounds of age, so while we thought Jonny had crossed the line in 4^th position, we soon discovered that in fact we had got our bronze medal after all. The Judd School took a deserved team gold, ahead of Calday Grange. The bronze medal was our first KVHIII Relays medal since our bronze back in 2016, and we were delighted. It is worth noting that the A team’s aggregate course time of 72:58 was tremendously quick, our fastest ever in fact. Our B team had also done brilliantly, with Hamish storming through the field and picking up three places to cross the line in a magnificent 18^th, beaten by only one other B team.

It was a very satisfied pack who made their way back to Shrewsbury that evening – a fantastic team effort from everyone who ran. Every single runner had fought hard for their time and position, and we were rewarded with some of the best team places we’ve had in recent years, and our two best-ever aggregate times. I can’t wait for next year’s race!

Ian Haworth

Master i/c RSSH