Once again, many thanks to Marian Hesketh for composing this week's LEP report.
Northern Athletics Autumn Road Relays, Birkenhead Park, Sunday 24th September
2023
Preston Harriers sent several teams to the Northern Autumn Road Relays, which attracted
athletes from all over the north of England. Competition was fierce, but all the Harriers fought hard for their placings.
The first race of the day, for Under 13 Boys, brought a bronze medal for the Harriers’ team of Albert Yates, Samuel Bates and Jack Turner. Yates was sixth on the first leg, Bates moved up to 2nd on the 2nd leg and Turner brought the team home in 3rd place for a fine result. The B team of Oliver Caslake, Jack Mawdsley and Ethan Bone placed 14th out of 25 complete teams.
In the Under 17 Men’s race, Matthew Clark was 2nd on the first leg with a time which was ultimately the 3rd fastest of all the runners in this category. The team finished 14th , with the other runners being Ethan Chadwick and Gordon Ballantyne.
The senior men fielded two teams, who faced stiff competition from powerhouse clubs such
as the winners, Leeds City. The A team of Luke Suffolk, Wesley Wilkinson, Sam Evans, Max
Holden, Billy Reid and Martin Phillips all ran hard for a 49th place finish out of 92 teams. The
B team (Chris Williams, Dougie Potter, Stuart Nixon, Alex Venables, David Lea and Paul
Ratan) finished 70th.
The senior women were led off by Nicola Sutton, who was followed by Lauren Waddington and Katie Littlefair. Charlotte Gregory ran the Spar City of Preston 10k in the morning, where she was 2nd woman in a time of 41 minutes 56 seconds, before rushing off to Birkenhead to anchor the relay team to 32nd place out of 60 complete teams.