A preview to Saturday’s ERRA National 6 and 12-stage Road Relay Championships at Sutton Park

Aldershot, Farnham & District s women will be seeking to extend their winning sequence to six and last year s race quickest, Emelia Gorecka, will be looking for a repeat, but the 2015 form of AFD team-mate Lily Partridge has been exceptional.

Team manager Tim Eglen said they should be stronger than at the Southern relay at Milton Keynes.

Also in the hunt for women s medals will be Northern winners Leeds, Southern silver medallists Belgrave and last year s silver medallists, Swansea. Also challenging will be Bristol & West, who won the Midland event by nearly five minutes from Charnwood, for whom Jane Potter was fastest.

The biggest change for 2015 is that following lobbying by some clubs the women s race will include two long stages. These will be on legs one and two. Thereafter, the women will run the remaining four stages over the short lap. Entered into the event are 62 women’s teams and 72 men’s teams. The races will be run on the same course that was used for this year’s Midland event.

The men s 12-stage will see South of England champions Shaftesbury Barnet try to unseat holders Leeds, but the Northern champions seem to have the measure of the Sutton Park course and led for the second half of the 2014 race, even though they only beat northern rivals Morpeth by less than a minute.

Notts took the Midlands race, but will surely need to put in a faster time to head Leeds. Scottish invaders Central were fourth last year as Andrew Butchart was joint fastest with Cardiff s Ieuan Thomas but, missing him in the Scottish six-stage, they were beaten by Kilbarchan.

Timetable

Noon – Men s 12-stage
12:20pm – Women s 6-stage

Distances subject to confirmation on the day

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