PPAC-77 Mile & 4x100m Relay

After experiencing our first washout of the year the previous week's event was attempted a second time and, despite some overnight rain, conditions were close to perfect with a rapidly drying course by the start of the morning's first event - the inaugural PPAC Mile Race.

Mile Race
As with recent events we were able to run two heats, with senior athletes racing first followed by a youth heat with eleven keen and mostly first-time 'Milers' lining up for both races.

One of the big challenges of the mile and similar middle distance races is judging the pacing. You need to set off fast, but just how fast, and will you be regretting it by the time you've reached half way and those frantic first few yards at the buzzer are just a distant memory?

Those who took off a little too enthusiastically were met with a taxing experience as the tarmac they tore up in the first half now resembled an endless runway on the return, but rewards were there for the athletes who picked their pace and stuck it out to the end.

It was tightly fought at the front of the senior race with Neil dipping just under the 5-minute mark followed closely by Andarge a few seconds back. Matt was the third athlete to record a sub-6 minute result and three athletes were in the six minute range. Elaine and Meyjou were less than half a second apart at half way but Elaine held the pace excellently for first while catching and overtaking Dickson at the line. Further down the field a consistent effort and strong finish from Sanket saw him gain one overall position before crossing the line.

In the youth race the standout performers were the top two finishers. Separated by three seconds at the half way mark both athletes stayed in control with negative second half splits, but Erika accelerated more strongly to cross the line fifteen seconds ahead of Sreyleap. There were more encouraging performances including strong finishes from Chanta and Jenny who both gained places in the second half of the race.

4 x 100m Relay
Following some recovery time and 15 minutes of pre-race relay training led by club president Meyjou - covering the start, baton pass and takeover zone marking - athletes headed across to the 4x100m relay course - an out-and-back road course with the 200m takeover at the top of the bend.

The first 100m would be run in lanes after which athletes could take the racing line (mimicking the longer 4x400m track event). Two teams went head to head in a mixed senior race (two women, two men) and a female youth race. A fifth team (two youth and two senior men) completed the line up by running a third heat solo.

Heat 1 (mixed senior) ebbed and flowed as Dickson took a slight early lead which was quickly overturned by opposing team member Darakunthea in the second leg. A strong effort from Sreyrath facing Sanket closed the gap to a deficit of 0.33s before Matt and Andarge surged to the line in two strong final legs. Andarge was just under half a second quicker than Matt taking the win for his team with the fastest leg of the day.

The female youth race followed a similar pattern as Sreyleap forged a lead of almost a second with her first leg. The deficit remained steady at 0.81s with second-leg runners Sreypov and Jenny running similar times before Chanta reduced the gap by 0.66s. In spite of Sivmey's fast final leg effort, Nalen had made the final handover with her team still 0.15s ahead and teammate Erika pulled further ahead with the quickest leg of the heat, running 15.68s to take the win.

In the final effort of the morning the mixed youth/senior male team ran solo and came agonisingly close to recording a sub 1-minute time, however, their 1:00.87 was the quickest of the event.

Thanks this week to a fantastic group of helpers including Seavmey, Kimkheang, Lorinda and Chanpiseth, whose help is invaluable to the event's success as always. See you all soon!