Virtual Road Relay Competition - National Round results!
We are delighted to announce that the winner of the National Round of our Virtual Road Relay Competition is… Wirral AC! Joining them on our virtual podium in second place is City of Norwich AC and in third place is Aldershot, Farnham & District AC.
With 37 runners from the club competing in the National Round, the fastest four male and four female runners to score for Wirral AC were: TJ Jones (24:46), Ethan Brady Jones (24:51), William Strickley (25:23), Daniel Hayes (26:28), Sophie Tarver (27:11), Keira Brady-Jones (27:43), Emily Kearney (27:43) and Ellen Mary Kearney (28:34). The team broke the virtual finish tape with a collective time of 3:32:39, followed by City of Norwich AC in 3:33:00 and Aldershot, Farnham & District in 3:33:09. Click here to view the full results on OpenTrack.
A total of 1,026 runners from the 50 qualifying clubs competed in the National Round, following on from the 2,455 runners from 128 clubs who had competed in the previous Qualifying Round.
As overall winners of the National Round, Wirral AC will now progress to represent England in the International Round – taking on the best teams from the other Home Nations of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland on 19-22 March.
John Heap, Chairman of Wirral AC, was thankful for the competition opportunity and said: "This is a fantastic achievement of which our coaching team and young squad should be incredibly proud. Wirral AC is only four years into a development programme designed to revive the club, a team-based approached to coaching has allowed us to quickly scale-up and integrate new athletes, new coaches and create new opportunities in the sport. We have had no access to a track or other facilities for 12 months but the relay result shows the enthusiasm of the club with nearly 40 athletes taking part. The strength building in our women’s team can be clearly seen, and with the development of our men’s team on the same trajectory, but two to three years behind, we believe the best is yet to come."
Thank you to every club and runner who has supported and taken part in the England Athletics Virtual Road Relay Competition across the Qualifying Round and National Round... and many congratulations to everyone at Wirral AC!
The England Athletics Virtual Road Relay Competition was created to give runners from across the country an opportunity to enjoy the excitement of competition at a time when traditional road running competition is not possible. Racing saw club runners each completing legs of five miles, with the fastest four men and four women scoring for each club team. Click here to read more.