The 2021 Northern 6 Stage Road Relay Championships, held at Redcar, produced the first Senior Mens Medal for the Club when they came home in Bronze Medal position behind Salford in 2nd and Leeds in first place. Fast forward to Sportcity on Saturday September 25th 2022 where the Senior Men’s team were looking to produce a second successive medal. (RESULTS). One hundred and eight complete teams with 24 part teams – half of whom were just one athlete short of making a complete team – was a testimony to the interest and desire to be involved in the competition.

Three Mens team for the Harriers took to the line on the first leg, Matt Ramsden for the A Team had the run of the day, clocking the 4th fastest time of the day in all legs as he came home in 2nd spot with a time of 19.44 behind Derby’s Hugo Milner (19.17). Over to Luke Betts on leg 2 running 20.55 and 10th fastest leg, handing over to Josh Birmingham on leg 3 who ran the 4th fastest third leg in 20.28, maintaining the teams overall position of 4th. On the next leg, Callum Davidson ran 20.36 – 4th fastest time again – as he pulled another position back to bring the Club into 3rd place. At this stage the team were down by 39 seconds on 2nd placed Hallamshire and 57 seconds up on 4th placed Derby. Ben Fish had a great run on the fifth leg to raise the possibility of winning Silver – Leeds solidly in Gold Medal place. Running the teams 2nd fastest time of the day for the team and the 2nd fastest time in the leg, Ben clawed back 23 seconds to bring us within 16 seconds of the Silver Medal spot occupied by Hallamshire. Ben handed over to Daniel Bebbington on the final leg who ran our 3rd fastest time of the day and 6th fastest in the leg of 20.21 which cemented the teams Bronze Medal spot with a final combined time of 2hr 02.17, Hallamshire taking 2nd place (2hr 01.54) and Leeds 1st place, breaking 2 hours with 1hr 59.17. Great running by all the lads in securing our second successive Championship Medal.

L-R Callum Davidson – Daniel Bebbington – Matt Ramsden – Ben Fish – Josh Birmingham – Luke Betts

Matt Ramsden (A11)

Luke Betts

Josh Birmingham (C11)

Callum Davidson (D11)

Ben Fish

Daniel Bebbington

Ben Makin had a really good run on leg 1 for the B team clocking the fastest time of the day for the team with his 21.18 in 34th spot with David Hoiman also running well – posting the 2nd fastest time – to pull back a couple of places on the second leg with his 21.51. Joe Bridge took over on leg three, running 23.08 which meant that Nick Gaskell on leg 4 set off in 38th place. Nick had a strong run to pull back a place with 23.06 followed by Chris Davies running the exact same time on the fifth leg to maintain the position. On the final leg, Tom Blaney had a very good run with his 22.49 hauling back another four positions, the team finishing in 33rd overall. Stephen Walter ran the fastest time of the six legs for the Harriers C team clocking 22.28 handing over to Marc Hartley in 62nd place. Marc ran our second fastest time of 23.05 to win back a place followed by another strong run from Matt Nuttall who pulled a further 4 positions back for the team with his 23.28 before passing on to Sam Hodkinson on Leg 4 in 56th spot. Sam ran a time of 24.08 finishing in 57th followed by David Almond on leg 5 running 25.04 who handed over to Danny Maynard on the final leg, Danny running 26.16 and the team placing 69th overall on the day.

Really good to see such solid and strong runs from all the lads which has resulted in the Harriers winning two automatic places for the Nationals being held at Sutton Park on October 8th.

Ben Makin (A12)

David Holman (B12)

Joe Bridge

Nick Gaskell

Chris Davies

Tom Blaney

Stephen Walter (C13)

Marc Hartley (B13)

Matt Nuttall (C13)

Sam Hodkinson (D13)

David Almond

Danny Maynard

Back Row L-R …. Sam Hodkinson – Nick Gaskell – Tom Blaney – Chris Davies – Paul Guinan – Ben Fish – Luke Betts – John Chaplin – Matt Ramsden – Tim Raynes ….. Front Row L-R…. David Almond – Karl Billington – Josh Birmingham – Daniel Bebbington – Callum Davidson

In the Senior Women’s 4 Stage featuring 83 complete and 15 incomplete teams – (RESULTS) – we were unfortunately just one athlete short for two teams. Eleesha Charnley posted the fastest run of the day for our senior women, clocking 24.40 to bring the team home in a time of 24.40. Lindsay Davies also ran the first leg in 31.20 (79th). Ellen Sagar-Hesketh took over form Eleesha on leg 2 running 27.19, placing 24th. Amy Davies on Leg 3 pulled back five places with her 26.20, passing on to Abigail Stratton on the final leg who also pulled back places – another three – with her 25.17 clocking to bring the team home in 16th spot overall.

Eleesha Charnley

Lindsay Davies

Ellen Sagar-Hesketh (B207)

Amy Davies (C207)

Abigail Stratton (D207)

The Harriers U15 Boys team had a very good day to come home in 5th place out of 41 teams – (RESULTS). Oliver Gill ran a fine first leg bringing the team home in 5th position with his time of 11.24, followed by Sam Aspey who was just one second different as he ran 11.25 to pull us into 3rd place and Bronze medal hopes as Keiran Hamilton took over on the final leg, running 12.15 to bring the team across the line in 5th place. Really good effort by the lads. 40 teams in the U15 Girls race – (RESULTS) – with one team for the Harriers led off by Charlotte Robertshaw running our fastest time of 14.08 (27th) followed by Hannah Davies on leg 2 ran 14.46 (29th) and Tamzin Osborne on leg 3 with a time of 18.01 – the team finishing in 35th position overall. Our U17 Men’s team – (RESULTS) – were unfortunate in that Daniel Smith who was due to run leg 1 was ill and so the team order had to be changed on the day. Jack Lamb took on the first leg running the fastest time for us with a 12.27 clocking in 13th place out of the 23 teams competing before handing over to Codie Dewhurst who ran strongly for 12.52, pulling back a couple of places in handing over to Daniel on the final leg. Daniel was really struggling with a bad stomach and all credit to him for completing his leg to make sure the team were on the final results sheet, running 15.30 in 21st.