The hosts for the relays won both the Men’s and Women’s relay races.

Elite athletes were present in both races including Gordon Benson, European Under 23 triathlon champion, who kicked matters off for the Men’s ‘A’ team. Bringing the team home in 3rd position really shows the quality of the field. Josh Woodcock-Shaw had a storming run to only finish 11s behind Gordon for the ‘B’ team. Gordon handed over to Phil Sesemann who took the lead going into the second leg and gave Linton Taylor a chance the increase the gap. Ben Marriott finished things off for Leeds and provided a comfortable win for Leeds ‘A’ team.

Other stand out performances came from Jack Reed once again. Greg Hull the university coach dusted off his spikes and showed off his skills. 4 out of the 6 fastest legs of the day came from the Leeds ‘A’ team with international athletes such as Dan Garbutt and Jake Wightman the others in the top 6. A very strong team is being formed and is showing huge promise for BUCS in February.

Running royalty was present in the women’s relay race with Susan Partridge, 10th in the World marathon championships in 2013, coming back in 6th position for Leeds alumni. Meanwhile Claire Duck, fellow teammate of Susan’s, brought Leeds ‘A’ team home in first position. Zara Knappy followed on from Claire and produced a strong run to keep Leeds in the chase for the win. This left Georgia Malir to give Leeds the chance to clean up the prizes for the day, running a fantastic final leg to give Leeds yet another comfortable victory.

Other stand out performances for the Women were, Beth Garland and Amicia Lee respectively. Both Men’s and Women’s running at Leeds Uni is going from strength to strength, and there will be no one surprised come the end of the year if Leeds are to be placed amongst the top 2 teams in the country. Next up for the Gryphons however is a stern test – Varsity at the beginning of January.

 

Richard Powell

 

Image courtesy of sport.ac.leeds.uk