A HOST of Bury AC members performed well at Birkenhead Park on Sunday – the venue for the North of England Road Relay Championships.
The seniors’ relays were preceded by the Northern 5k road running championships for junior athletes and in the under-17s' event, Brandon Quinton ran brilliantly to take a battling sixth place in 16 minutes – a time 29 seconds faster than he produced last year.
In the women’s race, Heledd Rimmer took 15th place (21:22) – just two places ahead of Charlotte Speakman-Farnworth (21:33).
Freya Potts was Bury’s only competitor in the u15s' races and she demonstrated she is in the form of her life, taking fourth place in 18:51.
The senior women’s race was over six stages; two long and four short and Hannah Price led the team off on the opening long leg and ran strongly to hand over to Christie Cook in 23rd place with a split time of 30:29.
Cook moved the team up to 21st place with her short-leg effort of 15:21.
Katrina Conroy, running another short leg, covered the course in 16:32 and held on to 21st place, while Katie Geelan ran the other long stage, returning a time of 32:08.
Nicola Harland moved the team back up to 21st with her split of 17:20 and Afroditi Kalambouka covered the final leg in 19:43, having to concede two places and bringing the team home in 23rd out of a field of 55 teams.
The men’s race covers 12 stages, four long and eight short, and Ben Coop covered the first long leg in a scorching 24:50 to hand over in 22nd place to Gary Crowshaw.
Crowshaw covered his short leg in 13:26 but had to surrender four places.
The next long leg was in the safe hands of team captain Byron Edwards, whose 25:43 effort saw the team move up to 24th.
Paul Johnson took the short fourth stage and his 13:39 leg moved the team up to 23rd, before young Josh Birmingham’s 26:10 long stage moved the team to 21st – their highest standing of the race.
Rick Solman performed very well, his 13:49 leg seeing him hand over in 22nd position before Patrick Babb took the last long leg of the race.
However, his solid 26:48 still saw three teams pass by.
Giles Bennett’s eighth stage of 14:25 saw the team drop just one place, as did Jack Griffith’s stage of 14:08 and Anthony Hallahan’s of 14:50.
Andy Worthington took over the penultimate leg in 28th place but despite his best efforts on his 15:53 split, he handed over to last-leg runner, Colin Smith, in 30th.
Smith only lost one place – his 16:58 stage bringing Bury home in 31st place, 10 higher than last year’s outcome and ahead of 37 other club teams.
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