Preston Harriers put in a strong performance at the British Masters Road Relay Championships to achieve one of their highest ever finishes in a national road running event.
Harriers travelled to Sutton Park, Birmingham with two teams to compete in the Vet 35 to 45 and Vet 55 to 65 age categories. The V55 team consisting of Phil Walsh, Phil Morley, Steve Clayton and Kevin Hesketh ran a combined time of 1:14:23 and finished a very creditable 5th place in their category. Their time was only 1 minute and 18 seconds from achieving third place and a national medal. Kevin Hesketh ran a superb 17:38 for the team’s fastest leg over the testing 3 mile course.

In the V35 to 45 category the men’s 8-man team came fourth, just missing out on a medal with a combined time of 2:10:49. The team of Steve Hallas, Jon Green, Jason Parker, Dave Watson, Rob Affleck, Gethin Butler, Matt Livingstone and Gary Pennington was just over a minute down on third spot. At one point the squad had been as high as second thanks to two excellent legs from Rob Affleck (15:39) and Gethin Butler (15:38) but just lost out to a strong Salford Harriers team and a  very fast finishing Highgate team who moved up from 5th to take 1st place over the last three legs.