Salford Harriers under 17s group won the national title in the English Cross Country Relays over the weekend.
Salford Harriers and Athletics Club is one of the oldest clubs in the country, after being founded in 1884 by Harry Hardwick.
Over the past 133 years, the club has had many successful members, from Olympic Champions, to the current crop of medal winners.
Over the weekend, Salford Harriers took part in the English Cross Country relays and the under 17s group managed to win the English Cross Country Relays national title.
The English Cross Country Relays have been taking place since 1985, and this weekend marked Salford Harriers junior’s 12th time competing.
Head Coach Duncan Mason commented on how he felt before the relay event, saying: “We’d already won the northern cross country relays which was a month before so I knew as a coach from training that they were in better shape than when they won the road relay.”
In previous years, Salford Harriers have been close to winning, but haven’t quite managed it.
However, the passion and determination still remains the same, as Duncan said: “It was a bit of an ambition to win it.”
The cross country relay took place at Berry Hill Park Mansfield, with the route going through woods, up and down hills, and through fields.
The relay was split between three team members that each ran a 2.5 kilometre leg, then passed on to the next runner.
In preparation for the event, the boys trained a lot together, as Duncan said: “The boys train five times a week, they train together two or three of those days on the track for their speed and they’ve been doing grass sessions for specific work on cross country.”
The team have upcoming trials in Liverpool for the Great Britain team for the European Cross Country Championships.
Duncan said: “They’re all under 20s, so they’re all quite young but hopefully they can be competitive there and in the future, maybe they can make the team for that.”
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