The Northern Road Relays took place last Sunday at Catterick Garrison with the men’s 12-stage and women’s six-stage events.

They serve as qualifiers for the national championships at Sutton Park, Birmingham on April 9.

Morpeth Harriers were first of the men’s teams with a total time of 3hr 24min 16sec.

First-leg runners cover eight kilometres and then the distance is alternated between four and eight until the last man is over the finish line.

Leeds City AC finished in second place with 3hr 25min 36sec, and Derby followed at some distance third in 3hr 33min 24sec.

Bingley Harriers finished in an excellent fifth spot (3:35:03) and Keighley & Craven were delighted with their 21st place in a total of 3hr 54min 1sec. Alistair Brownlee ran the fifth fastest long leg of the day, and his fifth leg run brought Bingley from twelfth to third, but performances were consistently strong across the team.

The top ten were rounded out by Gateshead (fourth), Salford (sixth), then Sale, Leeds City B, Blackburn and Hallamshire. Holmfirth finished 11th and York Acorn 19th.

Wakefield District were champions in the women’s six-stage teams in a total of 1hr 19min 56sec.

Following closely were Leigh Harriers AC (1:20:10) and Salford Harriers (1:20:34).

Keighley & Craven had three women’s teams competing with the swiftest, the A team finishing 13th overall with 1:30:21.

Helen Glover, Tizz Woffenden, Trish Gavins, Liz Tomes, Fiona Raby, Jenna Mudd, and Rebecca McLean were all ranked highly overall in the leg times.

Sunday’s Epilepsy Action Bradford 10k proved a fruitful event for local training partners Will Kerr (Saltaire Striders) and Matt Nowell (Bradford Airedale).

The pair finished in fourth and fifth spots, with Kerr running his fastest time since 1999, crossing the line in 34min 41sec.

Nowell, who pipped Kerr by 12 seconds, creating a gap around 7km, commented that "the marshalling was excellent and the race had a warm, friendly feel about it".

Nowell said that "the course had a couple of challenging hills but overall was pretty quick and enjoyable, making for good times".