Golden girls at Northern relays
STOCKPORT’S junior athletes took to Sheffield to take on the Northern cross-country relays at Graves Park.
With sunny spells, there was no need for spikes as our junior teams sailed through the course.
Our U13 girls were the first out, with three strong Stockport teams taking to the start line. The first Stockport team included Sophie Ellwood, Saffron Meade and Freya Murdoch.
Making up the B team were Niamh Mackintosh, Ellena Walker and Ella Buckley.
The C team consisted of Gracie Hunt, Lara Waterhouse and Aisling Brooks.
Starting off with a bang, Sophie Ellwood wriggled her way into the top six on the first leg, setting Saffron Meade up to take the team up to second place.
The girls found themselves in a battle against Rotherham Harriers until Freya Murdoch managed to outrun Rotherham’s Lillia Harris and sealing Gold for the team.
The B team also managed to run themselves into the top 10 with a very close finish against Liverpool Harriers, with the C team placing 28th overall.
The U15 boys team also ran an exceptional race with Finley Mayoh setting out his stall and putting the team straight into second place which was bravely maintained by second leg teammate Jack Catterall.
With a nerve-wracking final changeover, James McGraw fought to maintain this position but slipped seven places, bringing the team in at ninth overall.
In the U15 Girls, Isobel Brundrett, Jessica Jones and Lauren Dewsbury placed 40th overall.
Finally, the U17 Stockport boys took to the stage to end the event. Running first leg was Harry Ellwood (19th), followed by Cameron Murdoch (21st) and Jacob Wooddoyle (16th) who brought them home in 16th.
More relay racing was to be had of a hillier type at the British Fell relays in Bamford, Derbyshire.
Stockport managed to field a Men’s and Women’s team with athletes split across four legs.
Running first leg for the men was Edward Corden who set the team up an impressive 34th place out of 240 athletes.
Steve Vernon and Malcolm Johnson took on the second leg together and finished in 58th place, handing over to James Corden and Tom Peers who fell back to 178th place.
On the last leg, Andrew Nixon had an impressive run and managed to claw back 61 places to finish 117 meaning the Men’s team placed 105th overall.
The women’s team were made up of Elaine Kirsty MacDonald (228th), Linden Hiscock and Fiona Johnson (211th), Emilia Gajda and Jennifer Hulley (215th) and Rebekah Livesey (231st) putting the Women in 217th position overall.