The Club had another superb day at the National Road Relays, hosted at their spiritual home, Sutton Park. The Young Athletes' races comprised 3 legs and were over a testing lap of 3.88km, whilst the Men, 6 legs, and Women, 4 legs, each ran 5.47km.
Our U18 Men's squad have had a storming start to the winter season, and produced another brilliant win and course record to become National Champions. Tommy Clerkin ran a brilliantly executed leg, sitting in the pack in the first uphill kilometer, he then wound things up, really hitting the after burners in the final 2km for a leg win, 11.34. James Clements Nash was superb on leg 2. Running one minute quicker than last year, he opened a significant lead on the chasing teams with his 11.28, handing over to Caspian Holmes who's 11.56 secured a 27 second team victory. Our B team finished an excellent 26th of the 85 complete teams. James and Tommy were 2nd and 3rd quickest individual legs overall, respectively.
Our U16 Girls team produced another excellent team performance, finishing 4th, with Skyla O'Brien leading the way for 3rd on leg one, 13.33, Isobel Mclennan 5th on two, 15.07, and Marie Scriven closing in 4th, 13.52. Our U14 Boys were also in the top 10, with Josh Lotter 8th, 13.11, Rafe Horne 6th, 13.58, and Tommy Howard closing the team in 7th with 13.51. Our B team were 25th of the 65 complete teams. Our U16 Boys team finished in 22nd of the 90 team, Harry Kucerov 38th, 13.12, Benjamin Thomas 33rd, 13.28, and Ted Jones, 22nd, 12.50. Our U18 Women were 25th of 50 teams, with Zoe Dodgson 23rd, 14.42, India O'Brien 21st, 15.28, and Roberta Campbell 25th, 16.00.
Our Senior Women's and Men's team saw significant changes from last week's Southern Road Relays, underlying the depth within the Club. Our Women finished in an excellent 8th position of the 66 teams, and our B team were 35th. Making her debut, Ruby Carter ran our fastest leg, 18.52 for 10th on leg 1, with Helena Keenan 9th, 19.35, Grace Leyland 10th, 19.30 and Sophie Tooley 8th, 19.01.
Our Men's team finished 27th of the 64 complete teams, with Morgan Roberts also on leg 1 our fastest closing in 16.30, Rowan Board 24th, 16.46, Danny Shaw 20th 16.39, Tom O'Mahoney 27th 18.11, Jeff Cunnigham 27th 18.00 and Oli Walker 27th, 17.44.
To more than cap off a brilliant weekend, Molly Smith produced a huge win in the Manchester Half Marathon which incorporated the England Championships, with a big PB and second quickest ever time by a HHH woman of 71.40. There were some strong runs by our men in Manchester, including Tom Austin 66.22, Ollie Mills 68.11, Ross Brown 69.06, Harry Roberts 69.18 and Sam Brashaw 71.04. Joffah Ratcliffe was 5th M55 with 78.04.