47th annual Christmas morning 3 mile handicap
Gareth Howells completed a Christmas Double by winning the 47th Annual Christmas Morning Handicap, Severn AC's most venerable race, as well as taking the second heat of the Handicap sprint up Kenilworth Avenue.
The 18 year old started from scratch and overtook the whole field in the 3 mile event, to secure his second race victory. He was closely followed by fellow St Peter's student Oliver Starkey to give the Stroud Road School the top two positions. Other good performances came from Gloucester AC's Jeremy Mower, first Vet 40, and Nicola Wong of Angels, first Lady.
The sprints, split into two heats due to an icy track, saw Severn AC's Howells and the unattached Tom Russell win comfortably.
The early lead in the distance event was held by the first starter Dawn Hyde of Angels. She started strongly and managed to hold on to first position until the halfway mark when clubmate Nicola Wong took over. Her lead didn't last long though with late starters Howells, Starkey and Mower ploughing through the field, which was the largest for 20 years, and getting towards the front in the final third of the race.
Jeremy Mower started third from last and ran an evenly paced race to move his way up the leaderboard, before speeding up in the final stages to secure third position for the Gloucester AC Ultra-Distance athlete.
The main battle of the race was between Howells and Starkey though. Starkey set a quick pace, gaining on the early starters. Meanwhile Howells went off in chase of second starter Ed Fletcher and caught him within 5 minutes. The youngsters passed 3 time winner Dave Spackman after one mile and were ahead of Mower and rest of the field by two.
A fight then ensued to decide which of the school mates would take victory. When they turned for home after three quarters of the race Starkey had the measure on Howells but he was losing ground. With 100 meters to go it looked as if he would hold on for victory but a late charge gave Howells the smallest of leads and a victory by under half a second.
Exhausted by their efforts Howells and Starkey did not realise who had won until told by the race officials.
The main event was closely followed by the traditional 180 meter sprint race up Kenilworth Avenue.
The first of the two heats saw Tom Russell start 20 meters ahead of Lee Prichard, and although Pritchard challenged Russell he couldn’t push though to snatch victory, losing out by 1.3 seconds.
The second heat saw Gareth Howells start at the back of the field , racing through for the second occasion of the day to seal his double victory.
SEVERN AC CHRISTMAS MORNING HANDICAP
RESULTS - 1.G. Howells - Severn AC (U20) 24.50, 2. O. Starkey - Severn AC (U17) 24.50, 3. J. Mower -Gloucester AC (V40) 25.14, 4. Mouse Clutterbuck - U/A (V45) 25.36, 5. Nicky Gauder - Severn AC 25.55, 6. Ed Fletcher - U/A 25.57, 7. Ian Pollard - Severn AC (V55) 26.09, 8. Nicola Wong - Angels (LV40) 26.32, 9. Denise Evan - Angels (LV45) 26.38, 10. Adrian Fletcher - U/A (V55) 26.41, 11. John James - Severn AC (V60) 26.44, 12. Rob Jordan - Tewkesbury (V40) 26.55, 13. Lee Pritchard - Severn AC 27.16, 14. Dawn Hyde - Angels (LV55) 27.19, 15. Dave Spackman - Gloucester AC (V60) 27.24, 16. Alex Brown - U/A 27.30, 17. Duncan Sargent - Severn AC (V40) 27.40, 18. G. McGrace - Gloucester AC (V55) 27.46, 19. Gavin Townsend - Cotswold (V40) 28.03, 20. Tom Fletcher - U/A 28.09, 21. Nathan Gregory - U/A (V45) 28.16, 22. Greg Nelson - U/A (V40) 28.26, 23. Helen Brown - Angels (LV50) 29.02, 24. Andy Mathews - U/A (V40) 29.35, 25. Mike Storey - Gloucester AC (V55) 30.50, 26. Michelle Whitson - U/A (L) 32.10, 27. Terry Whitson - U/A (V55) 33.50, 28. Sarah Whitson - U/A (L) 33.50, 29. John Russell - U/A 33.52.
SPRINT RESULTS -
HEAT A - 1. Tom Russell - U/A (20M) 27.2 2. Lee Pritchard - Severn (Scratch) 28.5, 3. Mouse Clutterbuck - U/A (3M) 29.4, 4. Oliver Starkey - Severn (10M) 31.0.
HEAT B - 1. Gareth Howells - Severn (8M), 2. Jeremy Mower - Gloucester (20M), 3. Nicky Gaulder - Severn (18M) 4. R. Jordan - Tewkesbury (V40).
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