Sixty-five Sunderland Harriers proudly displayed club colours at last weekend's Royal Signals North-East Counties Road Relay Championships, held over a testing two-lap course in Hetton Lyons Park, with two teams making the medal rostrum.
Prior to the race, Team Manager Albert James was cautiously optimistic that the Senior Men's team could be in the mix for medals, and his faith proved justified as the sextet of Nathan Reed, Ian Dixon, Kevin Jeffress, Steve McMahon, Liam Roarty and Andy Powell responded superbly to finish third, with the B Team making it two teams in the top 8 and confirming the improving depth within the club this season.
Nathan led off in a very competitve opening leg, and kept the Royal Blues right in touch with his 11:13 effort for the 2.22 miles. Ian Dixon took over and kept the side in contention with 11:57 giving Kevin Jeffress plenty to aim at as he moved through the field on Leg 3. After a 11:26 effort Kevin handed over to Steve McMahon, who showed he is in great shape as he prepares for next month's British Master Cross-Country Championships by running 11:18 and moving the team into medal contention. A battling 11:44 from Liam Roarty crucially took a further 10 seconds out of New Marske, who at this point were occupying the final medal position, and gave Andy Powell a platform to challenge for bronze on the anchor leg. Recent track sessions have illustrated Andy is approaching top form, and slowly but surely he set about reeling in New Marske's Tristan Learoyd. Approaching the final hill, Andy had daylight and despite a late rally from Learoyd, the result was never in doubt and the men claimed their medals behind runaway winners Morpeth, for whom our guest runner from last week Ian Hudspith, ran 10:47, good for 5th fastest on the day, and Gateshead, who were runners-up.
A scintillating third leg of 11:15 by Guy Bracken of North Shields Poly was the difference between gold and silver for the Men's Over 50 team. Led off superbly by Tim Field, whose 12:30 was third fastest of the day, and ably backed up by Paul Merrison (12:53), Brian Bewick (12:32 in a rare outing this winter) and Stephen Coxon (13:49), the men finished comfortably ahead of Morpeth with a fine second place.
The Women's races proved very competitve with Olympians and Olympic hopefuls in the shape of Laura Weightman and Aly Dixon turning out for their respective clubs, and the Women's Senior squad ran well to place 9th (unoffically) in 60:00 thanks to the efforts of Michelle Avery (13:53), Alice Smith (14:38), Sarah O'Mahoney (14:53), and Marie Davis (16:36), only 22 seconds ahead of the Women's Masters quartette of Nicola Woodward (14:03), Emma North (15:56), Colleen Compson (15:25) and Judith Thirlwell (14:58), who ranked 7th unofficially in their age group.