Fechin McCormick
The rain was relentless, but the Northern Road Relays were far from a “damp squib” for several Sale Harriers teams at the Northern Road Relay Championships. Hosted by Leigh Harriers, the standout performances were:
UNDER 15 GIRLS: Last year’s champions, when their ‘B’ team also took bronze, once again showed great depth and strength. Despite several squad members moving up an age group, the girls performed brilliantly. Their ‘A’ team of CAITHLIN WETTERS, MEGAN BOYER and BEATRIX SOPER were 5th, just 12 seconds off Bronze medals and most likely would have medalled had Caithlin not had a fall as she set off. Their ‘B’ team – ROBYN HEYWOOD-YOUNG, ISLA ANDERSON and MADDIE APPLEBY also won medals as the 1st ‘B’ team. Impressively, they were the only club to field ‘C’ and ‘D’ teams.
WOMEN: They were flying! LUCY ARMITAGE, CHLOE ELLIOT, OLIVIA BROWN and NICOLA MOYNIHAN were 4th and delivered the senior women’s best result since they were silver medallists in 2015. Their 4th place was also just a few seconds shy of the bronze medals and not too far from toppling Goliath’s Leeds City and Salford Harriers off their long time podiums …….and they were also the only club to turn out a ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’ teams
UNDER 17 GIRLS With several of last year’s U15 stars stepping up an age-group, the future looks bright for this age-group – and their results proved it. Their ‘A’ team of ISOBEL HALL, IMOGEN HILL and CHARLOTTE UNDERWOOD were 5th – the best result for this age-group since before 1998, almost 30m years ago. Their ‘B’ team of PHOEBE CARROLL, HANNAH SQUIBBS and RUBY-MAE LANGFORD also ran strongly, showing great depth of talent.
UNDER 13 GIRLS again showed great consistency. The ‘A’ team finished 6th, a position in line with their performances over the past five seasons and the ‘B’ team were 17th Well done to LUCY O’BRIEN, FLORENCE CONNOLLY, IMOGEN MORAN, CICELY COLDWELL, WILLOW FAWLEY, ERIN SOWERBYCROSS.
UNDER 13 BOYS were 10th place, the U15 BOYS 8th and the fact the U17 section turned out three teams for the first time in 20 years, is indicative of the development of this club section.
SENIOR MEN: Last year they acknowledged their 12th place did not do them justice even though 12th was their best position since 2019, the year they won the silver medals. Their target therefore was to improve on this! Though NIGEL MARTIN, ALEX BRADFORD, STEPHEN HENDERSON, PHIL RICHARDSON, NICK TYNAN and SAM PENDRILL are all fleet of foot who gave it everything against seriously strong opposition, they were again outpaced by their Northern rivals and finished 24th .
