Another busy weekend for Birtley AC!

Sunday was a very full day for Birtley athletes, with several events taking place.  A very special mention first of all for Ruth Dadswell with an amazing performance in the York marathon, which also happened to be her first outing in an England vest. Huge congratulations to Ruth on breaking the 3 hour barrier, giving her a "good for age" performance - she came 211th overall, 10th lady, 4th from 294 in her age category, and a fantastic time of 2:59.17 (gun time).  Congratulations also to her fellow Birtley athletes Karl Oakes, Mark Hornsby, Gordon Smith, Paul Agnew, Kirsty Walker and Kelly Bentley, many of whom gained PBs - well done to all! Full results here.

Also taking place on Sunday was Pedro's 10k, an event which is obviously well supported by Birtley athletes due to Pedro's long association with our club. There were an impressive 5 Birtley athletes in the top 20 positions, including Nigel Simpson in 4th place, and Lisa Short coming in as 1st lady in 16th place overall - congratulations to all who ran in what were pretty horrendous conditions! Full results here.

Pedro's son Andrew Murray, proudly running in memory of his dad.

The Minors XC took place at Jarrow, with good support from the younger Birtley athletes in the club (some of whom had also raced on the Saturday at Sheffield). Well done to all who competed, with special mention to the year 4 girls for their 1,2,3 finish (the team consisting entirely of Grahams, twins Kitty and Nell and unrelated Poppy!), and Noah Williamson who won the year 5 boys race. Results to follow when available.

The Golden Grahams!

Noah Williamson and team-mate Bradley Thwaites.

Finally, turning to events on Saturday, well done to the huge club turnout for the Northern XC Relays in Sheffield, where we managed to field a team (sometimes more than one) in almost every age group. Too many names to mention all individually, but another great performance from Chris Perkins with a fastest leg (despite nursing an injured ankle), and an impressive 9th place finish for the men's A team, consisting of Tom Goulding, Adrian Bailes, Lewis McConnell and Zak Scott. Well done to everyone who ran for the club on the day! Full results here.

Some of the younger athletes at the Northern XC Relays