Week Ending - 2020/07/26

BADGERS READYING FOR MILE CHALLENGE WEEKEND

As the weekend of the LRRL Monster Mile race approaches, Badgers have been busy preparing for the crucial and shortest leg of the virtual league campaign which would see them either knocked out of the tournament or alternatively remain with their slim hopes in tact taking matters into a final week. The club are hoping for a bumper turn out as participation has been growing steadily since the league commenced in late June. A number of big stars such as Ann-Marie Currier and Mandy Hanson are rumoured to be returning in the next round which will no doubt give the troops a major boost. Currier has been an inspirational figure to many at the club and had a superb season as ladies vice-captain in 2019. She has been side-lined for most of the campaign with a fascinating array of injury problems according to her agent but hopes are high for the pretty 38 year old key-working Cher fan to return to racing.

In the meantime, there was a small amount of action last week in the form of the AJ Bell World Triathlon in Leeds. The event went ahead in a different format to that originally intended, becoming a duathlon by losing the swim element, with athletes producing their own individual performances local to them in line with the current Covid-19 restrictions. Stefan Martin was back in the game after a period out with a long-standing achilles problem. He was brave, maybe a little too brave in attempting the longer of the two options, a 40K ride followed by a 15K run. While he did not deliver any personal bests, it was great for him to be back in action especially given his longest training run prior to the event was just under 10K so completion represented a major step forward in the popular Nuneaton-man’s recovery to full fitness. Andy Smith was another involved, the V55 star taking a smidgen over four hours to complete the event while the hard working Judy Parkes took on the shorter Sprint distance, comprising of a 20K ride and a 7.5K run, getting back in an impressive 83:30. Multi sport specialist Steph White took part showing she is equally adept at riding a bike as she is a horse and Ben Satchell missed out do to a fishing trip clash.

The Abbott 10K trail run at Hopwas Woods is a popular event this time of the year normally, raising valuable funds for local charity Simon’s Heroes. As with virtually every other event in athletics right now, this too fell foul of the current restrictions but some big-hearted Badgers were keen to help contribute to the cause as £100 worth of prizemoney won in this year’s club Fantasy Football League was generously donated back to the charity by some of those lucky enough to win it, including overall winner Gavin Crockwell.