It was a wet day at Saturday’s Northern Road Relays.  The course at Leigh Sports Village was over a flat, narrow course with some tight turns and dirt tracks that with the rain were quite slippy and muddy.  All junior races were over a 3.2km course with Seniors running over a 6.5km 2 lap course.  The male races in each age group set of 5 minutes before the Female races.

In the U13 Boys race classmates Thomas Fotheringham (11.15), Emanuele Calisti (11.51) and Stan Barber (11.44) finished in 24^th place.  Cora Black (12.22) led of the u13 Girls and Betsy Widdop (12.37) moved the team up to 17^th place on leg 2.

There was a big turn out of Trafford U15 Boys with 4 teams starting the race and it was a close battle between the 4 teams on first leg.  Sam Ingleby-Castleton (10.53) was first back in 27^th place with Logan Grocott (10.59), Ned Farncombe (10.59) and Paddy Widdop (11.28) close behind.  Leg 2 saw Arlo Mander Tullius move up 15 places recording the 4^th fastest time of the day and the fastest time outside leg 1.  Thomas Daly (10.43) moved the Trafford A team up another place on last leg bringing the team home in 11^th place.  In the B team Ethan O’Brien (10.54) and Oscar Bundy (11.22) moved the B team up to 25^th overall and 5^th B team.  Showing good depth the C team with Daniel White (11.53) and Charlie Congdon (11.58) were first C team to finish and Joe Bowden (13.05) started his winter season with a strong run for the D team.

In the girl’s U15 race Mya Black ran a competitive 12.38 in a high quality first leg.

In the U17 Men’s race, most of the Trafford Men had only just started their winter training, but hopes were high of both the A and B teams being competitive.  The youngest member of the squad Adrian White (9.23) set the standard on leg 1 as he kept close to the lead pack in 15^th place.  Pio Aron (9.10) then stormed through the field handing over in 2^nd place.  Fin Dobson Emmas (9.14) then closed on the leader but was also caught by Rotherham, so coming into the final 400m there were 3 teams together.  Fin pushed on to give Trafford a 6 second win.  The race for first B team was just as exciting with Evan Lewis (9.54) in 4^th place but only 13 seconds behind the lead B team.  Tim Ye (9.39) moved the B team up to 18^th overall and 1^st B team by 1 second.  Zach Rose then pulled away from the Wirral B runner and held of the fast-finishing Rotherham B runner with 8 seconds covering the top 3 B teams.  Trafford also had a strong C team only narrowly missing out by 18 seconds from being the first C team home.  Evan Horwell (10.18), Rowen Leeming (10.21) and Atticus Jones (11.39).

In the Women’s U17 race Rachel Bowden (11.39) led the team with a fast first leg, Beth Stanley (12.57) kept the team in 19^th place and Sarah Smith (12.11) moved the team up to 19^th place.  Trafford also had a good B team in the race and with Genny Jackson (13.57), Ava Evans (13.36) and Laila Raja (16.31) moving the team to a 26^th position overall and 7^th B team.

In the Senior Men's race Fin Profitt (18.28) recorded the 3^rd fastest time of the day as he chased the early leader on leg 1.  As the rain started to pore down Sam Jackson (20.05) made his Trafford debut with a great run to keep the team in 5^th place.  Durham university student Will Parker (20.19) had his best run for several years and he was backed up by Seb Patrick (21.58), Jeff Prest (21.13) and Simon O’Meara (21.36), keeping the team in 17^th A team and qualifying for the National final.

In the Senior women’s 4 stage race, Beth Reid (22.19) finished 11^th in a quality first leg, she was backed up by good runs from Sarah Hudak (23.19), Lauren Robinson (24.28) and Zoe Storr (17.05) keeping the team in 17^th place.  Also running well were Liz Elyard (25.28) and Sue Exon (36.54) in the B team.

For Full Results click here: Northern Athletics Autumn Road Relays (The Joe Galvin Championship)