This Saturday saw the start of the winter season with the North West Road Relays taking place in warm sunny Heaton Park. Trafford's U13 Boys team surprised themselves by winning the Greater Manchester title. Joe Thomas set off at the back of the 2.1km course but moved his way through recording the teams fastest time of the day. Thomas Daly then moved up the field a further 5 places and Patrick Widdop held off some fast finishers to secure the win and 8th team overall across all the counties competing. Trafford's B Team managed 7th overall Greater Manchester team and 1st B team in Greater Manchester, strong runs from the juniors Sammy Cowles and Joe Bowden set up Ralphie Rome to power through on last leg.

In the U15 age group both the boys and girls teams picked up medals. Rachel Bowden set the girls team off with the team's fastest leg and with excellent runs from Beth Stanley and Anna Thomas the team claimed 3rd place in the Greater Manchester Champs. The girls B team of Sadie McCormack, Semrawit Tekle and Rosie Lowther all competed well finishing 9th Greater Manchester team.

Best Trafford run of the day came from Tim Ye running first leg for the U15 boys team. He not only won the first leg but recorded the fastest overall time of the day. Evan Lewis then extended the lead recording the second fastest time for leg 2 and after a long summer holiday Pio Aron brought the team home for 1st team overall in all the North West Counties. Trafford boys B team were also in a close battle for the first overall B team. Jake Royle, Atticus Jones and Sem Menghis all exceeded expectations ending up 4th Greater Manchester team and 2nd B team overall.

In a high quality U17 womens race Traffords Ava Clough, Eleanor Nicholson and Sara Clough recorded some of the fastest times of the day (Ava 2nd fastest overall) and in a close race the team were fourth overall and 3rd Greater Manchester Team. It was good to see how strong Trafford's depth in this age group is with Martha McCormack, Isobel Thomas, Sophie Bowman, Daisy Atkiss and Fay Lewis all running well making the B team the fifth fastest Greater Manchester team. In the U17 Men's race Trafford also finished 3rd Greater Manchester Team. Josh Watson and Dan Partington set the team up and at the last minute Charlie Stanway stepped in to secure the bronze medal.

In the Senior Men's race Trafford had 4 teams with the A team finishing 8th Greater Manchester Team. Having made a big improvement this year it was Lewis Royle who came out as Trafford's faster runner, with Trafford Juniors Joe Deighton, Joe Daly, Fin Mayoh and Ned Silvey not far behind. Special mention to Team Manager Jeff Prest who ran Traffords's 3rd fastest time of the day. The vet 50 athlete who has been competing for 40 years is still running close to his PB's and is one of the top three V50 5km runners in the UK.

Trafford Women's A team lead by Zoe Storr finished 12th Greater Manchester Team and it was good to see Vicki Cronin continuing her return to form after giving birth to her first child last year as she recorded the teams fastest time of the day.

Full results can be found here: https://nwroadrelays.niftyentries.com/Results/North-West-Road-Relays-2023