The North West Counties Road Relays took place on Sunday 11th September at Edge Hill University in Ormskirk. What a great day! Lots of teams entered from under 13 all the way up to the seniors. We managed to field 5 senior men’s teams which shows what amazing atmosphere we have at the club at the minute, and was only made greater as everyone was competing as part of a team. Conditions were pretty good, just a strong head wind in places for athletes to contend with. The course was relatively fast and flat but with a few twisty turny sections in places.
The under 13 girls were off first and they needed to complete 1 lap each of 2.8km. The team finished 15th place overall and a brilliant 3rd place in Greater Manchester (GM). Well done to Demi Baxter (11.46), Molly Holness (11.56) and Imogen McBurnie (12.39) who took home the bronze medals. The under 15 boys competed over the same distance and finished in the exact same positions as the under 13 girls in 15th overall and 3rd in GM. Great performances from Marshall Fleet (10.13), Oliver Walker (11.03) and Alfie Manser (10.27).
On to the seniors and the women’s team performed well to finish in a creditable 13th place out of 47 teams and 4th in GM, especially with a very young team building for the future. Emilia Platt had a great first leg coming back in 4th place completing the 2 lap 5k course in 18.08. Megan Lewis (22.40) and Aliesha Smith (20.56) both had great runs to bring the team home in a strong position.
Finally, the senior men’s event consisted of 4 runners competing 5km each. We had 5 strong teams in attendance with some athletes taking part in their first ever relay race for the club. The A team worked hard to battle to 9th place overall and after some confusion was good enough to take a fantastic 1st place in GM after finishing on the same time as Bury AC in a very close finish. Well done to Joe Hudak (15.49), Gavin Browne (16.25), Daniel Armstrong (16.58) and Tom McGuinness (17.37).
The B team consisting of Robin Horner (17.54), Michael Obi (18.27), Dan Kavanagh (18.40) and Darren Smith (18.39) finished a very creditable 37th and 10th in GM. The C team finished a solid 49th overall and 14th in GM with Daniel Kenny (19.07), Jacob Taylor (19.13), Carl Hodskinson (19.38) and Jonathan Aust (19.07) all performing well. The D team finished 54th overall and 16th in GM with Michael Holness having a great run on the first leg coming back from injury in 18.07 followed by Dennis Thomas (19.11), James Hartshorne (20.48) and Kyle Clayton (20.37). Super Al Kennedy’s ‘Masters Elite Team’ used the race as team bonding for upcoming races performing well in 56th overall and 18th in GM, not bad at all out of 84 teams starting the race. Great performances from Alan Kennedy (19.51), Saul Gallagher (19.13), Ian Fraser (20.33) and Simon Grundy (21.00).
A big well done to all athletes who took part and all the coaches/parents for their support on the day – pictures of our amazing teams that won medals are below and full results can be found by clicking the link below.
Under 13 girls
Under 15 boys
Senior Men