Great to see several teams out for the Northern Road Relays held at hilly Silksworth in Sunderland on a windy Sunday. The cream of clubs from Northern England were in attendance. The juniors ran legs of 3x2.5 miles: the seniors 5km each.
The Under 14 boys finished 29th with a trio of Hector Ford Hutchinson, Luke Thompson and William Fawcett racing to deliver a time of 54m:57s.
In the Under 16 boys event Jack Dhawar, Jacob Thompson and Joseph Fawcett raced to 25th place out of 36 complete teams in a combined time of 46m: 14s. Gosforth were the eventual winners.
Morpeth had two teams in the Women’s 4 stage event. Robyn Bennett (20:19), Jane Hodgson (18:57), Morag Stead (20:11) and Rachelle Falloon (19:17) put in a solid shift to finish 14th out of 49 complete teams in a time of 1hr:18m. The second quartet comprised Lindsey Quinn (21:38), Vicky Thompson (23:29), Jessica Holman (24:34) and Caitlin Flanagan (21:11). They ran well to come across the line 35th in a combined time of 1hr:30m. Leeds won the event in 1hr:08m from Border Harriers and Lincoln.
Morpeth also had two teams in the men’s six stage event. The teams finished 3rd and 50th out of 79 complete teams. The Bronze medal winners were Sam Hancox (15:23), Lawrence McCourt(14:32), Liam Bartle (15:52), Rob Balmbra (16:08), Chris Coulson (14:26) and Ellis Hetherington (15:15) getting round in a combined time of 1h:31m, two minutes off victors Leeds. The B team finished in a time of 1h:48m. It was composed of Alastair Douglass (16:24), Rowan Bennett (17:45), Bobby Hagan (18:55), Shaun Land (19:04), Rob Hancox (19:44) and Andrew Lawrence (17:04).
Report by Alistair MacDonald.
