boys' bronze highlight of autumn relays

The Under 17 Boys at Birkenhead

The Northern Athletics Autumn Road Relays took place on Sunday 24 September in Birkenhead Park on the Wirral. A four-hour there and four-hour back journey for runners from the North East, but the club did manage to field teams in the U/15 Girls and the U/17 Boys, along with two teams in the Senior Men’s race.
 
First up were the U/15 Girls, who finished a very respectable 20th of some 40 teams,  with runs from Emma Tomlinson (13:17), Megan Potrac (14:01)  and Molly Roche (13:19). Winners were local outfit Liverpool Harriers and AC, with Lincoln Wellington 2nd and Sale Harriers 3rd.
 
The day’s medal-winning performance came courtesy of the club’s U/17 Boys who, while not quite able to match the winning performance of last year’s team, still came away with a hard-fought team Bronze behind winners Blackburn Harriers with City of York AC second. Elliot Kelso ran 11:58 on leg three to get the team into a medal position, which was also the team’s fastest time of the day and the 5th fastest run overall, after earlier legs by Joe Close (12:06) and Oliver Tomlinson (12:28).
 
Morpeth’s Senior Men were unfortunate to miss out on medal in the day’s final event, the six-stage relay, contested by some 100 clubs from across the whole of the North of England.
 
A flying Rory Leonard, currently in very fine form, had got the team into contention on leg 3 with what proved to be the fastest time of the day for the 5k course, 13:55, after earlier legs by Sam Hancox (15:17) and Will de Vere Owen (15:15).
 
Thereafter it proved to a very close tussle, with runs by Finn Brodie (15:02), Peter Smallcombe (15:37) and Will Cork (15:16) saw the club only slipping out of 3rd on the last leg and missing out on a medal by only some 17 seconds (1:30:22) to Sheffield’s Hallamshire Harriers (1:30:05), with a dominant performance by winners Leeds City AC (1:28:15) and local outfit Liverpool Harriers (1:29:42) in second.
 
There was also a taste of top-level racing for five of the club’s B team, all competing for the first time in a Senior outfit.
 
After experienced Alistair Douglas had got the team going on leg 1 (15:49), an unfortunate mix up on the changeover saw Liam Roche timed at 19:23, although his actual run time was much faster. Thereafter it was catch up time with the next four out managing to get the team back into 31st place overall (1:39:26) with runs by teenagers James Tilley (15:48), Bertie Marr (16:14), Ethan Phillips (16:01) and Tom Balsdon (16:11).
 
Disappointment was replaced by relief in the evening as it was confirmed that the club had  qualified their B team for the National event in two weeks time.
 
North East wise, Sunderland Harriers were well-placed in 14th with Tyne Bridge, for whom the redoubtable Jarlath Mckenna ran first leg despite running also in the NEHL the previous afternoon,  20th . TBH B team were 49th. Gateshead didn’t travel.
 
Action moves on to the National Six Stage in a matter of weeks, where the club hopes to be also in contention. Well done all who made the journey, and special thanks to on the day team manager Julie Roche.