The Arena 80 women team were the only Sussex team to complete their event at the South of England 12/6-stage Road Relays at the Cyclopark at Gravesend at the weekend.
The women’s event, which used to be four short legs, has to been increased to four by 4km and two by 6km in recent years and the Arena 80 squad did exceptionally well to finish in eighth place.
Team manager Caroline Wood said “It was quite a tough undulating course but the strong north east wind always seemed to be in your face on the uphill stretches”.
Dani Tarleton set the team off with a steady short leg in 16:17 which placed her eighth while Caroline Hoyte lifted the team to seventh on lap two in 23:25. Caroline Wood, the oldest member of the team slipped back to eighth on the third leg in 16:40 and a fine fourth leg by Julie Briggs, in her first race back from injury slipped to 11th in 24:28 only for Juliette Roberts, in 17:05 to move up to 10th.
On the final circuit newcomer Emily Hutchinson clocked 16:40 running a fine race to move back to eighth place which was an excellent effort for the Arena 80 where five of the six runners were over forty.
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