OWLS A.C. Leicester

At the annual Livingstone Relays, this year held on Easter Sunday in the familiar surroundings of Loughborough University Campus, the Owls Men showed their superiority to take both the Senior and Junior titles. Also, while the Senior Men took the overall victory, the Owls Junior Men finished second overall, not only beating the other Junior teams, but all the other Senior and Vets teams aswell.

Lewis Smart ran a strong first leg, sticking with leaders and ex-Owls Mark Powell and Gordon Lee to bring the Under 20 Mens team back in 3rd position overall, running 15.20, while Dave Lipscomb ran the first leg for the Senior Team in 16.19. By the end though, Gaz Davies had put the Senior team back on top, anchoring the team home with the fastest leg of the day with 14.36. The team was completed by Paul Miles, who had a strong leg with a time a in the 14.53, and Simon May, running in the 15.55. The Junior team, with the fastest junior leg going to Sam Stabler recording 14.54, finished second, completed by Danny Hallam (15.24) and Niall McSharry (16.26).

On a day of bright sunshine and pouring rain a barebones squad managed to finish 9th in the Midlands 12 Stage Road Relays. Run of the day goes to Gaz Davies who brought the team home in first place on the first leg. Well done to all those competing, finishing 9th under those circumstances was a good result. We can now look forward to the National 12 Stage and work to improve our performances come 17th April.

Mike McSharry is fast turning into my new hero as he turned out yet again for us when we needed him, did the job and seems to get faster everyone time he puts on the black and white vest! Great new addition in Dave Lipscomb, smashing bloke, fantastic debut and looking forward to seeing how he progesses over the next few months. Posh and Tom Nutt were back in the fold for the first time since the summer, hope you both enjoyed the race and good to see you back. Last but not least, Joe Archer made a much appreciated cameo appearance for us on the anchor leg to ensure we qualified for the nationals. Well done to all who ran.

With several athletes competing at the English Schools XC and some missing due to injury, the National 12 Stage looks set to be an exciting race.

Geraint Davies    (1) 26:36
Tom Meakin         (4) 16:02
Jason Williams   (5) 16:11
Paul Miles            (5) 27:43
David Lipscomb  (5) 16:19
Lewis Smart        (5) 16:08
Simon May           (7) 30:30
Mike McSharry     (8) 22:16
Thomas Bell       (8) 16:07
Steve Platts         (8) 29:18
Tom Nutt             (8) 17:04
Joe Archer          (9) 20:02

TOTAL TIME: 4:14:16