THE annual North West Road Relays held over at Stanley Park, Blackpool, kicked off many of Sutton athletes winter seasons.

And Sutton were off to a great start as under 11 boy’s team took home Merseyside County bronze medals as they took on the 1.6km course, Gabriel Mullins (6:32), Liam Johnson (6:44) and Joseph Colley (7:12), but then the girls not wanting to be out done also ran hard to again bring back bronze, Chloe Leigh-Mark (7:10), Poppy Handley-Hicking (7:07), and Daisy Ward (7:05).

Over in the U15 boys the lads decided to do one better though, claiming silver, Charlie Roberts stepping up in distance, after a great summer track season, set the early pace by running 3.2km in 11:10 handing over to Joseph Byrne (11:52) who maintained the position and handed over to Michael Brussels (12:20) who brought the team home.

In the senior races, the women were hampered by poor marshalling which affected the whole field, with legs being longer and shorter than they were meant to be, nonetheless under such conditions, the team lead by Team Captain Amy Corfield (23:29), Julia Shuker (26:16), and Louise Hayes (29:18) delivered a great performance. And in the men’s race the always strong Ste Anders (22:52) lead the men to a great run, followed by Jake Healy (25:41), Andy Wilson (24:01), and Ian Hayburn (25:03)

While over in Yorkshire, the Queen of Distance, Collette Flaherty continued her amazing an impressive year as she took on the monster challenge of the 41 mile, 4300ft Urban Legend Ultra, not only completing it in an impressive time of 9 hour 21 minutes but also being the first lady home.

Closer to home at the inaugural Rainhill 10k, after being injured for the previous two months Senior Captain Matt Crehan led from the start to win with a 46 second lead, and was followed by Sutton Chairman Barry Graney who was second Vet 45.