A Relay brave effort by clubs’ youngsters

MORPETH and Gateshead were unfortunate not to make the podium at the National Young Athletes Road Relay Championships at Sutton Park, Birmingham, writes BILL McGUIRK.

Morpeth, the North of England under-17 relay champions and Gateshead, the NoE under-15 silver medallists, had to be content with fifth and sixth place respectively.

Morpeth, led off by Daniel Melling, were in 36th place - there were 77 starters - at the end of the first stage.

Taylor Glover made a huge forward move into 10th place before passing over to Rory Leonard.

However, despite posting the ninth quickest overall time of the day, Leonard could not make up the deficit to make it into the top three and at the line was just 22 seconds away from picking up a team medal.

Gateshead, with James Morris their quickest, finished 38th.

Durham City with Cameron Thomas their best, were 46th, while North Shields Poly finished 51st.

Meanwhile, in the under-15 relay, Gateshead also had to come from a long way back to be in contention at the finish.

The Tynesiders were 34th from 94 starters after David Race’s stint.

However, Harry Morris moved through into 17th before passing on to Ethan McGlen to run the glory leg.

Despite a superb run by McGlen which produced the third quickest overall time of the day - it just was not enough to trouble the leaders and Gateshead missed out on a medal by just 25 seconds.

Durham City, with Sam Gibson their best, were 17th.

In the under-13 contest North Shields Poly were in third place at the first changeover thanks to a superb run by Josh Blevins which resulted in the fourth-fastest overall time of the day.

The Monkseaton-based club eventually finished in 29th place out of 75 starters thanks to the efforts of Thomas Bird and Dillon Elsonveale.

In the girls’ championships, the Poly ended up24th in the under-15 event thanks to Rosie Hughes, Kirsty Nash and Lucia Bradley.

In the under-13 contest Katie Joslyn, Holly Waugh and Gracie Davies were 39th.