Sunderland Harriers go into the Royal Signals North East Road Relay Championships at Hetton Lyons Country Park on Saturday with stronger teams than last year.
They will bid to improve on their results of 2016 where they won two sets of medals with third place in the Senior Men’s Relay and second spot in the Over-50 men’s event.
The Wearsiders, 12-times winners of the Senior Men’s Six-Stage Relay, have 14 teams entered in the five events on the programme in the popular event hosted by Houghton Harriers.
Senior men’s team manager Albert James is in buoyant mood as he prepares to select his six-man team, who he believes will improve on their result of last year.
James said: “We have a couple of new additions to the squad in Barry Maskell and Kevin Calvert and they should make a big difference to the overall strength of the team.
“I’m hopeful that we can improve on our performance of last year and come away with brighter medals.” James will select the rest of the team from Nathan Reed, Michael Barker, Kevin Jeffress, Steve McMahon and Ian Ritchie.
They need to have at least a couple of the team going under the 11-minute barrier for the 2.2 mile course to put themselves in contention for a place in the frame.
There are three senior teams entered.
Sunderland’s last win came in 2007 at Lobley Hill where they led from start to finish to beat Morpeth by nearly two minutes.
The team that day was Gavin Massingham (10.00), Jack Martin (10.25), Brian Rushworth (10.24), Tim Field (10.42), Patrick Martin (10.07) and Tom Doughty (10.42).