North East relay wins for Morpeth and NSP – UK road results

Morpeth retain men’s title while news of 5km PBs for Thomas Keen and Revee Walcott-Nolan at Battersea

NORTH EAST ROAD RELAY CHAMPIONSHIPS, inc Signals Relay, Hetton-le-Hole, Sunderland, Tyne & Wear, February 18

Morpeth’s men notched up their fourth win in a row but their women were unable to make it a hat-trick of victories as North Shields Poly booted them back to fifth, Martin Duff reports.

Once again it was Carl Avery who anchored Morpeth home in the six-man event but they had to come from behind after Joe and then Scott Armstrong had given Sunderland a big early lead.

Alex Brown then restored the established order by the mid-race point with a 10:06 split for the 2.2-mile third leg, before Chris Parr, Connor Marshall and Avery finished things off. His 10:19 was good enough for second best behind Brown as the Morpeth margin stretched to well over two minutes.

Sophie Pickett had given Elswick’s women a good start with a 12:15 split but then Charlotte Penfold’s 12:13 saw North Shield Poly ahead mid-race and then Jackie Penny’s 12:37 got them home on the anchor.

NSP win the women’s race (David Hewitson)

Old closed on the last leg with the fastest women’s split of 12:11 but it was too late and NSP won by more than two minutes.

The women’s masters’ race had seen Olympian Alyson Dixon put Sunderland Strollers ahead mid-race, with the fastest split of that group, with 12:27, but then former English National age group champion Justina Heslop saw Elswick home with the next best effort of 13:17.

Men (6×2.2M): 1 Morpeth 64:26 (S Hancock 11:02, J Young 10:57, A Brown 10:05, C Parr 11:02; 2 Sunderland 66:22 (J Armstrong 10:28, S Armstrong 10:45, S Rankin 11:26, S Jackson 11:05, J Ridding 11:41, A Hughes 11:27); 3 Gateshead 68:35 (J Blevins 10:41, D Alexander 11:18, M Linsley 11:29, J Cripwell 11:25, D Richardson 11:35); 4 Morpeth B 69:32 5 Gosforth 69:55; 6 NSP 71:41

Start of the men’s relay (David Hewitson)

Fastest: Brown 10:06; Avery 10:19; J Armstrong 10:28; A Bailes (Birt) 10:31; J Blevins (Gate) 10:41; L Gamble-Thompson (N Marske) 10:46

M40 (6×2.2M): 1 NSP 73:06 (B Cook 11:59, P Houghton 12:01, I Dunn 12:12, R McConnachy 12:05, P Coulson 12:20, G Cook 11:59); 2 Elvet 75:09; 3 Sunderland 77:15

Fastest: M Barker (Sund) 11:43; M Kearney (Elvet) 11:51; B Cook/G Cook 11:59; G Watt (Elvet) 12:02

M50 (4×2.2M): 1 N Marske 52:46 (M Murray 12:27, J Shaw 12:47, C Thornton 13:57, P Cleasby 13:35); 2 Morpeth 53:26; 3 Elswick 53:39

Fastest:…