Sports
Trash Athletes trash the Hashin Texaco Cross Islands Relay
The Schoolagers team. Top, left to right:Steve Obrist and Lizzy Haines, middle row - Jalon Linton and DavidEsdaile; bottom row - Anthony Chin and William Balderamos.
Before an early morning cock-a-doodle-doocould be heard in the Colliers, East End area, 24 runners gotthe Texaco Cross Islands Relay off to a flying start, leavingbehind a heavy buzz of mosquitoes.
The Trash Athletes team and Team Triathlon dominated the course,with Trash, placing first with a time of 2:27:33 and Triathlonin second at 2:30:18.
Trash Athletes were the pacesetters from the start, with MarkHydes registering a time of 23:31 in the first leg, nearly a minutea head of the Triathlon team, which was started by Dave Plumstead,who clocked in at 24.21. Nevertheless, the Schoolagers led byDavid Esdalie also had a strong showing, placing third timingin at 25:42.
With the second leg well on it way, the sun broke above the horizon,clearing the mist that hung over the Blow Holes. And this timeit was team Triathlon that led the way, with Gregg Taylor gainingand recording the fastest time in that leg (23:37). However, itwas not enough to overthrow Trash Athletes' quest for victoryas Graham Hampson led the charge in the third leg, outdistancingtheir nearest competitors by almost two minutes.
Andrew Tyson of the Gateway Gallopers (26:51) and William Balderamosof the Schoolagers (26:51) made up significant ground, as wellas, team Triathlon trailed behind with Glenn Whewell mediocrepace of 28:05.
After the third leg, Trash Athletes went almost unchallenged withDavid Cowan (24:47) clearing the field again in the fourth segmentand the Triathlon appeared to be losing ground with Gateway Gallopersedging in, as P. Hoare scored the second fast time of 26:25 andGraham Monk's galloping time of 23:47, the quickest in the fifthleg left the Gateway Gallopers in good stead.
Nevertheless, Max Obrist's time of 24:44 assisted the Triathlon'schallenge for second along with Tony Keely, who anchored the finalleg timing in at 21:46, which was the fastest for the day. However,Conrad Simms was the first make it through the gates at the TrumanBodden Sports Complex, completing his leg in respectable timeof 22:53.
The first women's team was Road Buster's, who were lucky 30thoverall (3:2:58) making way for 12th place Lactic Overdose tofinish ahead with a time of 3:18:55
John Elliott, one of the organisers of the Texaco Cross IslandRelay, remarked: "The race was great. The weather cooperated,the competition was good and there were no injuries. We couldn'thave asked for more."
Peter Sutcliffe added, "It was nice to see that we had fivewomen's team this year, which is a larger number than normal aswe only have three entries from the women's team. It was alsogood to see the young team do so well. It seems that the racegrows from strength to strength each year."