The Arena 2018 Super Series Club Challenge

The 2018 Super Series Club Challenge
It occurred to me that we’ve had two of the twelve races completed but we haven’t touched on them in terms of points and places.
I know we are only two races in and it’s too early to call on end positions at this stage but it still worth looking at those that have taken up the top positions.
It was at Chichester for the Harvey Curtis Cup race in February that kicked of the Super Series.
In the men’s race it was Richard Clayton that stole the show on the day by not only coming home as first Arena but also setting a new men’s 10k club record in 33.21. The ever improving Anthony Snelling took 2nd Arena place; Del Wallace, who is just getting better and better with every race, took 3rd Arena; a cracking run from Henry Miller secured him 4th Arena man; Aled Anderson took the 5th Arena man.
With the points added to the table it was this order that stood after race 1.
For the ladies at Chichester, we saw Maisie Trafford taking the honours as she came home as 2nd lady in 37.15 to take top spot in the SS challenge. The always impressive Tara Shanahan took 2nd Arena lady; Dani Tarleton was 3rd Arena lady; Caroline Wood was 4th Arena lady with Katie Wright taking the 5th Arena lady.
As per the men with points added to the table it was this order that stood after race 1.
The second of the SS races took us to Christ’s Hospital School for the Sussex Road Relays at the start of April and it’s here that the tables takes a slight turn and a couple of new names sneak in to the top 5.
For the men, it was again Richard Clayton who came out top. It looks like he is really setting out his stall for this year’s challenge and certainly doesn’t look like he wants to give up his title he won last year.
Alex Jago had a storming run and was only 21 Seconds behind Richard time-wise which secured his 2nd place Arena man. Mr Consistent Anthony Snelling placed 3rd Arena with Michael Barker and Jim Risdale making taking 4th & 5th Arena men.
Now when you convert the places to the table then it takes on a very interesting look as there are 3 new names in the top 5. Of course you would expect to see the names of Richard Clayton 2pts and Anthony Snelling 5pts filling the top two places after the first two races but thereafter the next two places are filled by the O50 and O60 men. Third place is Steve McNealy as he his last two races put him 9th in both giving him 18pts. The surprise entry sitting in 4th spot is Michael Miller having placed 12th and 14th in both races giving him 26pts and as they say “age ain’t nothing but a number” as proved by these guys. Filling the top 5 spot is Alex Jago with 32pts.
Interestingly the top 4 positions are all held by those that have completed both races thus far.
Here is the men’s top 10 table;

No. Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Points
Total
1 Richard Clayton 1 1 2
2 Anthony Snelling 2 3 5
3 Steve McNealy 9 9 18
4 Michael Miller 12 14 26
5 Alex Jago 30 2 32
6 Del Wallace 3 30 33
7 Henry Miller 4 30 34
8 Michael Barker 30 4 34
9 Aled Anderson 5 30 35
10 Jim Risdale 30 5 35

Now on to the ladies and as per 2017 it’s that lady Tara Shanahan 5pts who is where she left off last year at the helm with a very slight gap opened up.
Sitting in 2nd and 4th places respectively are the ever-present Caroline Wood 10pts and Jenny Hughes 18pts. These ladies should have our respect as year after year they really do perform at their highest level and always commit to every race. I have no doubt that we will be seeing their names up there throughout the year. 2nd place is held by a fairly new comer to the Super Series, as she joined in the latter stages of this challenge last year and that goes to Katie Wright 10pts. Completing the top 5 and great to Sue Brumwell 24pts right up there with the best of them. I’m not sure what Sue is feeding them in their household but with Sue in 5th for the ladies, Michael Miller in 4th and Henry in 7th for the men it’s obviously doing wonders for their running ability.
I would just also like to mention the next two places for the ladies table and great to see Juliet Fine in 6th place and Sophie Cheesman in 7th place. It’s very encouraging to see these ladies showing in the top 10 of the table.
Interestingly it’s the top 7 positions here that are all held by those that have completed both races thus far.
Here is the women’s top 10 table;

No. Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Points
Total
1 Tara Shanahan 2 3 5
2 Caroline Wood 4 6 10
2 Katie Wright 5 5 10
4 Jenny Hughes 9 9 18
5 Sue Brumwell 10 14 24
6 Juliet Fine 14 12 26
7 Sophie Cheesman 12 16 28
8 Maisie Trafford 1 30 31
9 Julie Briggs 30 1 31
10 Helena Rooney 30 2 32

With the A80 3k having to be re-scheduled, the next Super Series race is the Harvey Curtis Cup Race which is the Brighton Phoenix 10k. This is on Wednesday 11th July at 7.30pm which takes place on the Hove Prom. As mentioned many times before, this is a priority race for the club. As well as scoring points for the club you will also be scoring points for the SS challenge. Places are getting low so if you haven’t bagged your place yet then here is this link to enter: Phoenix 10k 
Amendment: The next Super Series race is now the A80 3k track event at Withdean on Monday 25th June.
All the Super Series races can be found here: Super Series Races
I have a feeling this is going to be one of our best Super Series we’ve had and it will be interesting to see how this pans out at the half way stage. As ever our thanks to our SS race director Danny Cartledge for putting this together and collating the points.