VALE Royal Athletics Club youngsters enjoyed a great day of success at the National Road Relay Championships held at Sutton Park in Sutton Coldfield on Sunday.

Two of the 10 gold medals available were brought back to Knights Grange.

Following on from their successes at the recent North West and Northern Championships, the under 15s boys and girls took on teams from all over the country and came out victors once again to their credit.

The boys team of Dylan Carney, Jake Wilson and Patrick Griffith led the way.

Dylan, on the first 3.88km leg, came home in 17th place, handing over to Jake who stormed up to second place with the fifth fastest leg of the day.

Patrick continued the push and came home in first place running the sixth fastest leg of the day, winning by 18 seconds from South London Harriers. A total of 62 teams competed.

Hope Smith ran the first leg for the under 15s girls A team, handing over in eighth place to Grace Roberts.

Grace negated a 36-second deficit to lead at the change by 10 seconds, running the third fastest leg of the day.

Holly Weedall continued the effort despite being unwell for the last two weeks to come home some 53 seconds clear of the Saffron Waldon AC team and running the second fastest leg overall.

Vale Royal’s under 15 girls B team also competed and finished a very creditable 17th out of 55 teams.

Ellie Hudson, on the first leg, handed over in 43rd place to Ellie Bushill, who ran a fine leg to pull the team up into 17th place and Issy Ashcroft maintained the position to the line.

Later in the day, the under 17s boys race brought hope of another medal.

Will Ashfield ran a very strong first leg to hand over to Ed Pettitt in 11th place.

Ed pushed on to gain two places but the final leg, run by Raif Serif, could only bring Vale Royal up to sixth place in a field of 55 teams.

Vale Royal qualified two teams to run in the senior men’s race, a highly competitive event featuring many international standard athletes.

As an example, Marc Scott, who recently competed in Doha in the 5000m, ran the fastest leg in 16:46, and renowned “big” clubs like Aldershot Farnham and District, Leeds City, Cardiff, Birchfield and Sale Harriers were all represented.

To their credit, Vale Royal’s A team, comprising Chris Perry, Arun Dight, Matt Rowlinson, John Humphries, Andy Miles and Ryan Moore, came home in 30th place out of 76 competing six-man teams running legs of 5.88km (3.65 miles) each.

The B team comprising Matthew McCormack, Alex and Stuart Doyle, Josh Betteley, Will McKay and Gareth Williams finished in 62nd spot.

Vale Royal also entered two senior women’s teams of four.

The A team squad comprising Tessa McCormick, Amelia Pettitt, Hollie Carrington and Anna Beglin, took 26th place in a field of 64 teams.

Vale Royal’s B team of Mel Johnson, Sharon Wilson, Clara Pettitt and Renee Carney came home in 58th place.

With the road relays completed, Vale Royal will now look forward to the cross country season starting with the National Cross Country Relays which will be held on November 2 in Berry Hill Park, Mansfield.