Perkins is relay quick to make his mark
JUST a sprinkling of the region’s clubs travelled to Sheffield’s Graves Park for the annual Northern Athletics CrossCountry Relay Championships.
So it was not surprising there was a lack of medals brought back to the North East.
However, one club in particular banged the drum after taking a coachload of competitors to Yorkshire - and its efforts were rewarded with some eye-catching performances.
Birtley AC had teams entered in seven of the 10 races on the programme - and they celebrated in style after Chris Perkins ran the fastest leg of all in the under-15 boys’ event.
Perkins ran the first two-kilometre leg and reached the changeover point well clear of his rivals after posting a time of 6min 45sec - which proved seven seconds quicker than anyone else on the day.
Birtley, with Robbie Mumford and Rowan Mason also in the team, eventually slipped back to finish in 19th place.
Gateshead, meanwhile, had started off brightly in seventh position thanks to David Race (7:04) before dropping out of contention on leg two (Theo Barron).
Ethan McGlen, with the fifthfastest overall time of the day of 6:58, brought the Tynesiders home in fifth place - one place and two seconds ahead of Darlington.
It was a similar story in the under-15 girls’ relay, Ines Curran giving Gateshead an early lead with the second-fastest time of the day of 7:30 for the 2k circuit.
At the end, however, Gateshead were in 23rd place as the Birtley trio of Katie Francis (7:45), Abigail Thwaites (8:18) and Tess Graham (8:15) moved through to finish in sixth.
In the under-13 boys’ relay Darlington finished in fifth place with Gateshead - Ben Asquith their quickest in 5:51 - in 10th spot. Birtley, with George Beevers their best (6:00), claimed 16th.
Durham City were the pick of the North East teams in the under-13 girls’ contest, finishing 10th, while Gateshead were 25th.
In the under-17 contest run over a 2.3k course, Houghton clinched sixth place - Will Bellamy their quickest with the fifthfastest time of the day of 7:03.
Durham City finished 10th and Darlington 20th.
Birtley were the only outfit from the region to contest the under-11 relays.
Their girls’ team of Maggie Graham, Hannah Wilson and Daisy Graham secured 11th place while the boys’ squad of Matthew Drummond, Callum Bailey and Gabriel Curtis took 23rd spot.