Photograph Quiz:
Photo number ….who knows????? What was the importance of this College to the development of athletics in Coventry? Who was the Head? What was his standing in the city?
Dear Blog,
It appears that the National 6-stage Road Relay for men and the National 4-stage Road Relay for women has been cancelled … another one bites the dust, another one bites the dust. Could this be the thin edge of the wedge for the National Relay? There has been talk for some time about the composite make-up of the teams and distances for the National Road Relays. Is the idea of change of format a case of evolution or devolution? Could the cancellation be an excuse for destruction rather than a reason for construction?
The major step in road relay running was the conception of running a relay from London to Brighton in stages in the 1920s for an exclusive band of southern, mainly London, based clubs. Over the years, relays developed and were a means of binding the winter cross country season to the summer activities and then those to the new winter season. Relays were very popular amongst club members for competitive and social reasons. The London to Brighton was regarded as the National Championships long before it was official recognised as such. Increase in traffic volumes drove most relays into extinction, the ‘National’ finally finding a home at Sutton Park. That is not to say all relays died. Some struggled to continue on roads, some went off-road, some modified the Japanese ‘ekiden’ which incidentally predates the London to Brighton. But Sutton Park in the 70s became the home of the National 12-stage … the women’s 6-stage and the autumn 6 and 4 stages were to come later, eventually also settling at the park.
Now, as most monies in athletics has been target towards one end for the last half dozen years, it will be interesting to see if there is the will and the cash to rescue a race for the little people in athletics. When traffic made conditions impossible for the National Relay to continue on open roads, there was a ground swell of determination that the event should under no circumstances die. We now live in a different world. It is ironic that there now exists thousands more running clubs than in the 70s which one would have expected to engender keen competition between clubs but the focus has changed from a desperate desire to succeed and improve to a world where participation has become the mantra.
I wonder if the weekly and monthly magazines would see the retention of relays as a worthy cause to take on board, to highlight and support. I suppose any such support would be driven by commercial interests, like most of athletics? Certainly amongst their readership, some athlete must be aware of potential venues for a National Relay, ‘it ain’t hard to find one??’ I have mentioned to you before Blog, that in 2008 I organised a five day marathon celebration called the Tour of Coventry and Warwickshire which celebrated the Centenary of Britain’s first ever recognised marathon (According to Roger Gynn’s book about marathons). It was no coincidence on my part to organise, at short notice, such a race on the centenary of London’s 1908 Olympic Games. The ‘first’ marathon ran from Spon End in Coventry to the West Bromwich football Ground, a distance of about 22 miles; remember the marathon distance as we know it was not fixed until the early 1920s. I set myself the task of finding 5 road course of about 5 miles each, some longer to make up 26 miles, as near as possible to the original marathon from Coventry in 1908. So the parameters were 5 races, road, 5ish miles, very close to a particular ribbon of road, and 5 sponsors. And the result was that, I succeeded in my task, with the bonus that four out of the five races were on new courses, most of which could easily be adapted to a relay of substance given that the goodwill I engendered five years ago still exists. My point being that if I could find a set of courses with the time constraints under which I was working, there must be dozens of likeminded individuals up and down the country who could come up with a fist full of realistic suggestions of a replacement for Sutton Coldfield. If the is a will, there is certainly a way … or a road?
Colin
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