One of the highlights of the amateur athletics scene returned at the weekend as the North of England Road Relays were staged in Manchester, with Preston Harriers out in force across multiple age categories. The under 13s were out first and the Preston boys’ team took bronze after fine running from Lewis Nelson, Samuel Ridgway and Hugh Smith, with Smith running the joint sixth fastest time by an U13 boy on the day. In the Under 15 boys’ category Preston finished just twenty seconds off a gold medal as Matthew Clark, Tom Jepson, and Myles Fraser combined to take silver, with Fraser recording the fastest lap time out of all U15 boys on the day, and Clark the third fastest time on the day. The under 17 boys team (George Rainford, Jenson Warren, and Jack Winstanley) finished a very creditable 9th place in their event, with the girls under 17 team going one better to finish in eighth place (Grace Rayner, Lauren Waddington, and Martha Rayner).
A youthful senior men’s A team was led out by Luke Suffolk who, despite a bad fall, brought the team round in 74th place, before teammates Zack Taylor, Billy Reid, Louie Clark, Thomas Chadwick and Euan Marsden, all of whom were competing in their first Northern relays as seniors, gradually moved the team up to 57th place out of 108 complete teams. The senior men’s team should have a bright future ahead with this crop of athletes joining their ranks.
The senior ladies’ A team was led out of by rising star Libby Huxley with the youngster taking the team around in 3rd place and recording the fifth fastest time by a senior lady on the day. Despite a tremendous effort the team was not able to hold on to this lofty position and eventually slipped back to 52nd following runs by senior women’s club captain Emma Essex-Crosby, Victoria Duckett and Cathy Flitcroft.
Other members of the relay squad included:
Under 15
Anna Pilling, Ava Jones, Eloise Hallas, George Darbyshire, Holly Moffatt, Lilly Washington, Molly Taylor, Samuel Bates, and Thomas Bates.
Senior men
Alex Venables, Andy Whaley, Paul Jeffries, Stephen Mort, Steve Bone, and Steve Hallas.
Senior women
Julie Tyrer, Maureen Kirkby, Sharon Wilkinson, and Sue Wickham.
SPAR City of Preston 10km road race, Sunday 25th September 2022
Preston Harriers tasted success on home roads in this popular race. Victoria Osten ran well to take victory as 1st lady in 43 minutes 32 seconds. Other Harriers to complete the race were David Lea (18th overall and 1st V60 in 40:50), John Ross (157th in 52:11), Helen Tattersall (1st FV60 in 55:51) and Susan Ashcroft (2nd FV60 in 58:59).