Johnson eyes Royal Signals medals after disappointment
After a disappointing result in the North East Harrier League at the weekend, where Sunderland Harriers finished last with a weakened team, all credit to the nine lads that turned out for the club to ensure they finished as a team.
Despite their last place finish, the club still lies in sixth place in the First Division with 10 competing clubs, and with only one fixture remaining at Alnwick on March 4.
The Wearsiders are the only club that have never been outside the top tier since the league was formed in 1980.
The best of the leading local performances at Thornley Hall Farm, Peterlee, came from Houghton Harriers’ Eva Hardie in 19th, from the fast pack, and 13 seconds behind her was Sunderland Harriers’ Jessica Fox, in 23rd, who was also from the fast pack.
Sunderland Strollers’ Rachel Pullan finished in fifth place, from the slow pack, and Sunderland Harriers’ Cameron Lawton was 29th, from the slow pack.
SunderlandStrollers’womenheadtheThirdDivisionand look set for promotion while Houghton Harriers are in second place in the men’s Second Division.
Team manager Jimmy Johnson now heads to Hetton LyonsCountryParkandthefocusisontheRoyalSignalsRoad Relays on Saturday.
Johnson said: “We have three Senior teams and one V40 team entered, so I'm expecting the senior A team to be amongst the medals again.”
The A team is Scott Armstrong, Joe Armstrong, Craig Gunn, Adam Hughes, Stephen Jackson and Steve Rankin.
The B team will be Alex Seed, Jake Ridding, Nathan Reed, Andy Graham, Rob King and Cameron Lawton.
The C team is Joe Willis, Kevin Johnson, Dillon Revell, Ian Ritchie, Jack Revely and Steven Potts.
The veterans Over-40s team is Michael Barker, David Lash,ChrisDwyer,MarkHead, Andrew Hughes and Michael Edwards.
The veterans Over-50s team will be picked from Paul Merrison, Darren Dodd, Paul Collins, Dean Phillips, Paul Redman, Tim Field, Trevor Barrs, Ed Sweeney and Steven Gordon.
Liam Taylor is missing due to work commitments as well as Michael Rodenby.
TheSignalsrecordsare:Senior Women: Team: Chester-leStreet 49:12 (2010) Individual: L Weightman 11:01 (2022). Senior Men: Team: Morpeth 63:56 (2022)Individual:RickyStevenson 10:09 (2012). M40: Team: Sunderland 71:12 (2010) Individual: G Bracken (NSP) 11:02 (2013). M50: Team: NSP 49:37 (2018) Individual: G Bracken (NSP) 11:09 (2015). Vet W: Team: NSP 55:06 (2016) Individual: A Dixon 11:33 (2016).
Scott Armstrong warmed up for Hetton by winning the York 5km Series race number one on Friday night, winning in 15:14, a PB of eight seconds. Adam Hughes (15:54) finished fourth, whilst his dad Andrew, finished 48th, with a time of 19:18.
SunderlandHarrierCarter McQue was on the medal trail again this time in the National Athletics Under-15s Indoor High Jump Championships at Sheffield.
Last week, he won the Northern Championship at thesamevenuewhenjumping 1.79m for a comfortable win.
He equalled his Northern performance in the National event to win again, but this time there was an Irish athlete competing as a guest, Conor Penney, and he cleared 1.96m.
However, Conor was ineligible to medal as he was representing Ireland.