The Arena elimination mile trial race
The last track session for 2018 was an absolute blast. The session was one of the clubs firm favourites being a Paarlauf session, mixing it up with 300m and 500m.
After the session we had the elimination mile which was organised by Tris Sharp and his merry men and women. There were about 40-ish that took part with a random number being eliminated on each lap. The first lap was hilarious as most members didn’t want to be the first out, this turned into a 400m sprint for many. Many of those 25 that were eliminated after the first lap were actually quite grateful as they were pretty much spent out. As you would expect to see, it was the usual suspects out in the mix. For the men it was Del Wallace who seemed to be holding fort out in front with the others drafting behind him LOL, Snelling, Barker, Anderson & Miller with Clayton biding his time further back. For the ladies it was Rooney taking the bull by the horns out in 1st place with Shanahan in a very close 2nd however the 3rdlady at this point was Katie Wright who unfortunately got eliminated after the 2nd lap. The race was now on and the positions were being established for thoseplaying it tactical. After lap 3 it was still the long striding Del Wallace holding prime time tv viewing closely followed by Snelling, Barker, Anderson& Miller all with their eye on the prize. Helene Rooney was still holding 1st with Tara cruising along about 10m behind, this last lap was really shaping up to be an absolute cracker. With 250m to go it was Del still leading the way with 5m up on Anthony who had 8m up on Barker, Miller and Anderson. At 200m the order was the same but it had started to close up with Richard Clayton starting to move up on to the back of the pack. At this point you just couldn’t call who was going to take it. With 100m to go Anthony Snelling and Henry Miller had passed Del and it now looked like a two horse race, this was coming down to who had the strength to carry them home. With the last 30m Anthony started to edge out in front but was being hard pushed by Miller and there was a strong finish too coming from Michael Barker but had he left enough to push pass Miller. Anthony claimed the line victorious with a superbly timed last 100m. Hats off as well to Henry Miller who had been out for a long time at the latter end of this season with a broken foot but finished with a very strong 2nd place. Michael Barker took a well-deserved 3rd place and just behind them it was a really tight finish for 4th and 5th place with Del taking the 4th spot and really deserved having taken the race to the boys and Aled Anderson just behind Del for 5th place. Coming down the finishing straight, it was Tara who had forced the pace on and passed Helene Rooney to come home as first lady with Helene just behind with 15m to the line. A brave and valiant attempt by the Rooney but Tara has been in the form of her life this year and she left 2018 the way she had started it, invincible.
This was such an entertaining race to watch and we wouldlike to thank Tris harp for picking this one up for a trial race and no doubt this will be back for Arena next year.
The final placings and times were:
1. Anthony Snelling – 5.08
2. Henry Miller – 5.09
3. Michael Barker – 5.10
4. Del Wallace – 5.13
5. Aled Anderson – 5.13
6. Bookies favourite Richard “4 laps” Clayton – 5.15
7. Al Silvester – 5.26
8. Ricky Coleman – 5.27
9. Tara Shanahan – 5.29
10. Helena Rooney – 5.33
