Rotherham chasing glory in National Road Relay Championship

The Harriers side won the Northern Championships recently and will be among the favourites in the national event at Sutton Coldfield on Sunday.

Jenny Blizard and Nicola Devine from the Northern winning quartet will compete again with Calli Thackery and Sophie Cowper coming in for Zara Knappy and Kerri Pearson.

Thackery, who has spent some years in the USA competing on the collegiate scene, is now back in South Yorkshire and has switched her allegiance from Hallamshire to Rotherham.

Already a club with tremendous depth, particularly in the women’s section, Rotherham will be stronger still with international Thackery in their ranks and she takes the first stage in Sunday’s race.

Knappy and Pearson drop into the B team joining Keiva Rennocks and Emma Ball. It is a very strong second team which will challenge strongly for B team honours.

Aldershot have dominated this race for several years and will again be the team to beat while Leeds City, beaten by Rotherham at Northern level, should be stronger this time.

Hallamshire, with Andy Heyes listed in a strong entry, should do well in the men’s six stage race.

With age group races over three stages, there are eight races on the programme with Rotherham fielding teams in seven of them.