Ken Harker

North of England Road Relay Cahampionships - Catterick 6th April 2008

Richmond and Zetland’s senior men and women were in action at the North Of England Road Relay Championships, hosted by the Club themselves and the Army, on home soil at Catterick Garrison on Sunday 6th April. The opposition was certainly challenging, with teams vying to qualify for the finals at Sutton Park, Birmingham. With 45 male and 31 female teams taking part, the competitive spirit was riding high and the Harriers were keen to establish good results on their own doorstep. The weather conditions were not ideal with the later runners heading out in heavy snow showers!

In the men’s competition, those more suited to longer distances took the longer legs of approximately 5 miles each, while those more accustomed to middle distance, ran the shorter 5K legs. Rich Hunt was first away and managed to pull the team into a great position, being the 19th fastest on his leg and handed over to Ken Harker, who also had a good run to keep the team in 23rd place overall. Paul Roberts was next up and was in excellent form, keeping the team well in contention. Jon Orange then tackled the next longer stage and ran a consistent pace to bring the team up a few notches, before handing on to James Wardman, also in great shape, being the fastest team member over the 5K distance on the day.

Tad Zaranko was next up and kept his cool to run a fantastic leg and handed over to Doug Roberts, who took another of the longer distances and ran strongly to pull them back into 17th place on the leader board. Shaun Purkiss added another great run on the 8th leg, before Ian Scott took over and made his way around the course at a good pace, handing on to number 10 runner, John Hands. Taking the last of the longer laps, John showed some solid form and the team was looking good, going into the last 2 legs. These belonged to Taff Rogers, who had a steady run to leave the finishing touches to Chris Peacock, who put in a strong performance, bringing the team across the line in 26th place overall, with a time of 4.32.28.

In the women’s event, teams of 6 competitors ran legs of 5K each, which was a sharp test over the shorter distance. Tamsin Clark was first away for Richmond and Zetland and put in a fantastic lead leg, completing the distance in 17.20, which placed the team in 7th position. Kelley Haniver then took to the road and put in a great performance to bring the team up to 2nd overall with a time of 18.07. Next away was Rachel Ross-Russell, returning to fitness in her first competitive event following a knee operation and she ran extremely well, with a time of 19.18, the team were now in 7th position. Sarah Gregory covered the 4th leg and put in a solid time of 21.00, claiming 11th place before passing on to the penultimate runner. Jo Adams ran the anchor leg convincingly, putting in a competitive time of 20.20 over the hilly course to bring the team home into a well-deserved 13th place overall in a collective time of 1.57.46.