September 18th brought the return of the North West Road relays, staged at Edge Hill University, a fantastic event which brings together the biggest clubs and some of the best amateur athletes from across the region. It proved to be a very successful occasion for the harriers who fielded teams in the under 13 boys, under 15 girls and boys, under 17 girls and boys, and senior women and men’s categories.
The under 13 boys’ team, made up of Lewis Nelson, Samuel Ridgway and High Smith, came away with the biggest claim to performance of the day, after taking silver in the North West standings and Gold in the Lancashire county standings. However, the bling came coming with the under 15 girls (Lily Washington, Anna Pilling, Ava Jones) taking gold in the Lancashire team standings, whilst the under 15 boys took silver (Ethan Chadwick, Thomas Bates, Gordon Ballantyne). In the under 17 category there was silver in the Lancashire standings for the girl’s team (Martha Rayner, Lauren Waddington, Grace Rayner) and Lancashire bronze for the boys (George Rainford, Jack Winstanley, Jenson Warren) and not to be outdone the senior women, who field three teams, also took bronze with a team consisting of Imogen Blackwell, Olivia Miller, and Cathy Flitcroft. There were no medals for the senior men, but the A team (Louie Clark, Luke Suffolk, Billy Reid and Zack Taylor) did achieve a very respectable 6th place finish in the Lancashire standings.
The event shows that the Harriers currently have great strength across all age categories and genders, which bodes well for the future, and mean’s that we have a number of talented athletes who can train together on a regular basis. The senior teams featured several athletes making the step up from junior level for the first time, as well as runners competing at their first road relay event, all of whom performed brilliantly and there was a real team spirit in the camp, and the support crew, some of whom spent all day at the Edge Hill, did the club proud with a spectator table of sugar laced goods to tuck into post-race.