Senior women show some Forest fire
THE first of the autumn relays began at Delamere Forest on Saturday with the North West Road Relays.
Hilary Honeyball led the senior Liverpool Pemborke Sefton women’s team off, coming home in 20th place (26.06), before Loughborough student Rosie Johnson took over. Rosie soon began to catch the runners ahead and her time of 23.31 was good enough to bring the team home in sixth place.
Team captain Kirsty Longley ran the third fastest time of the day (22.56) to catch all bar the runner from Leigh Harriers.
To claim a silver medal from 58 teams was an outstanding team performance.
Vicky Gilbody (25.54) and Harriet Foley (27.06) also ran. In addition they easily won the Merseyside event which was incorporated within the north west event.
A day later, Kirsty had enough energy to win the Salford Quays 10k on the Sunday (35.30) finishing 12th overall, but first lady by over five minutes.
The event was held in constant rain, but it didn’t deter the U15 Boys who claimed two team medals.
The trio of Mark Roberts (11.20), Se Loughlin (12.08) and Jake Dickinson (10.30) led from start to finish and claimed the Lancashire title, with Jake running the fastest individual leg.
Daniel Rathbone, Jake Ferriera and & Nicholas Usher finished just outside the medals in fourth place.
The Merseyside team were led off by Oscar Davidson (11.36) who brought the team home in fifth place and although they dropped to sixth on leg two with Gideon Lucas (12.01) an excellent run from Michael Henderson on leg three (11.26) brought the team home in third place.
The U15 girls trio of Freya Wissett, Ruth Usher and Olivia Morgan finished fifth in the Lancashire event, while Cara Tamburro, Grace Selby and Emily Williamson were seventh in Merseyside.
Jack Stanton had one of the fastest times of the day (12.14) in the U13 age group as he came home in second place, before Evan Williams and Nathan Naylor, who both ran 13.05, claimed the bronze medal in the Merseyside event.
The trio of Thomas Sleight, Conrad Lucas andJames Read were further back in sixth place, while Zac Dickinson, Sam Connor and James Roberts also finished sixth in the Lancashire event.
The girls too had to settle for sixth place thanks to Alicia Woods, Hannah Williamson and Chloe Bousfield. Jenny Williamson put in one of the best individual performances of the day in the U17 women’s event (13.120, but with only Phoebe Lucas for company, they finished one short of a team.
The senior men managed to put out five teams, with the Lancashire quartet of Ross Harrison (21.01), Luke Edwards (21.08), Dan Jones (21.29) and Adam Jones (22.28) narrowly missing out on a medal, as they finished fourth in a high quality Lancashire event. Their time would have got them a silver medal in Merseyside.
Andy Foster, Richard weeks, Mike Gall and Richard Beesley finished 10th in the same event. Team captain Mark Wynne (21.02) led the Merseyside team off in fifth place, while Jonathon Bride (21.59), Bernie Murphy (23.10) and Harry Doran (23.27) maintained the momentum to retain fifth place in the Merseyside event.
Greg Callaghan, Paul Milburn, Danny Gilbody and Phil Macdonald finished ninth in the Merseyside event, while Kyle Nicholls, Mark Hudson, John Dickinson and Andy Conway competed as a mixed team.
Attention now turns to the Northern relays on Sunday, September 23 around the Etihad Stadium and Sport City in Manchester.