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Athletics Peter Clifford reports
24 year old England International Steven Hepples, ( ex Loftus
AC ) made his debut for Southern club Newham Essex & Beagles,
on Sunday in the Southern 12 stage road relays at the Open
University Milton Keynes.
The legs are split evenly into alternative long and short
legs of approx. 7978 metres and 5506 metres.
The short leg course record is held by England International
Keith Cullen 15.49 ( Chelmsford AC ) set in 2000 whilst in
2003 fellow England runner David Anderson, ( Belgrave ) timed
15.51.
Taking over on the fourth leg Hepples was in 9th place. Starting
off very quickly the Northern based runner was soon making
progress in overhauling runners ahead of him,
16 minutes and 18 seconds was all it took for the Whitby
Community College, Finance Assistant to record the fastest
short leg on the day by 4 seconds propelling the Essex club
into 4th place as he finished the 4th .leg.
Newham Essex & Beagles, went onto to finish 6th overall
and easily qualify for the National 12 stage finals in two
weeks time in Sutton Park in Birmingham in 2 weeks.
A delighted Hepples, said after his run " I went off
very fast, possibly too fast and hit bottom in the middle
of the run but then recovered quickly to finish strongly.
The course record was never on in that wind, but I have been
told that there are only 6 runners with faster times in the
last 4 years. I would have fancied going close to breaking
16 minutes without the wind. I have to be delighted with that
performance given that I am still working on high mileage
and with only limited speed work"
Source the Time-to-Run
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