Four of our most experienced young athletes joined forces to form a dream team in Saturday’s NECAA Road Relay Championships. All used to running at County/Inter-Counter/English Schools level, Lucy-Erin Hunter, Catherine Roberts, Ellie Phillips and Megan Noble teamed up to compete in the Senior Women’s race hosted by Houghton Harriers.
Each 2.2 mile leg consisted of a 2 lap circuit around Hetton Lyons Country Park. Hundreds of athletes turned out for this popular event, with the Senior Women, running alongside the Women Vets and Men Vets (50), a total of 86 teams of 4! Our juniors who normally compete in the U17/U20 category are a force to be reckoned with, and certainly gave the best of the senior teams a run for their money!
Lucy-Erin started off proceedings running an excellent first leg, completing her circuit in a fantastic 12:46, and leaving the team in a strong position and 2nd place. Next, Ellie Phillips took to the stage, and with her usual strong performance she finished the second leg in an excellent 14:17. By now the tough competition were hot on the heels of our junior girls, and gained a few places leaving us in 6th place. Megan Noble took over from Ellie for the third leg and ran in her usual impressive way, completing her circuit in 15:07, and maintaining the team’s place in 6th position. And last but not least, Catherine Roberts took over and ran a tremendous anchor leg. She completed the circuit in 13:21 and brought the team back up to finish in 3rd place (excluding Richmond & Zetland who ran as a guest team)
A fantastic team performance, and a true show of strength from our junior squad! The future of Darlington Harriers is in safe hands!! Well done girls, top running! #UTH!
