Gordon Smith Relays, 13th May 2026
It’s mid-May, so as usual we found ourselves in the urban paradise of the Cobalt Business Park on a bright but chilly Wednesday evening, for Wallsend Harriers’ Gordon Smith Relays. Last years changed route remained, with a small improvement: the start/finish had been shifted a few hundred metres round onto the trail part of the course, meaning clubs were able to congregate on a pleasant grassy bank next to a pond, rather than in a car park.
Despite the pleasant evening, the rain earlier in the day had left its mark, and runners drifting back from the finish line reported that the first kilometre featured a plethora of puddles and slick mud-patches. General consensus: plough straight through and deal with the resulting damp feet, as the mud either side posed more of a hazard.
In the women’s race, our first team across the line put in an impressive shift, finishing in 12th place, with Heather Steel carrying on her recent speedy form to finish as our fastest lady on the night. After last week saw a deluge of debuts, it was just Lauren McQuillan turning out for her competitive Claremont bow tonight. However, it was one of last weeks’ debutants, Maria Oranges, who found herself at the centre of a mini-drama.
Last minute withdrawals the night before saw our women’s contingent cut down from 6 to 5 teams. This meant that on the night, we took possession of an envelope containing 3 now-defunct numbers. Maria was mistakenly given the 3rd leg bib for the non-existent team, meaning when her teammate Becky crossed the line, the officials held Maria in the pen, as their numbers didn’t match. Alerted to this fact, Maria had her number swapped as quickly as possible, and ran her heart out, unperturbed by the setback. The official results therefore give her a time nearly 2 minutes slower than what she actually completed the course in. She assured us the experience has not put her off future competitions!
Another recent joinee, having finally defected from Low Fell after a few years flirting with us as a 2nd claim, Dave Nolan was once again our fastest man, following his performance at the Masters relays last Wednesday. Running on 1st leg, my least favourite of the 3, I managed to just stay upright during the muddy bits, and was happy to get round without any of my recent niggles flaring up, the climb up the hill in the second half proving just that bit longer than I remembered!
Number mix-ups aside, it was another satisfying evening of relay-running, all our runners should feel rightly proud of their performances. A little break until late June now, when the greatest relay in the north-east will occur once more!
| Women | ||
|---|---|---|
| Position | Runner | Time |
| 12 | Lena Lou Heather Steel Nicki O’Brien Team Time: | 12:58 12:34 13:40 39:13 |
| 25 | Aoífe Monaghan Tara Hipwood Rose Hawkswood Team Time: | 13:26 14:37 14:10 42:14 |
| 39 | Nina Jensen Anna Round Ailsa Ralph Team Time: | 14:47 15:41 15:27 45:56 |
| 51 | Rachel Hurdman Sarah Taylor Lauren McQuillan Team Time: | 15:26 21:04 15:20 51:51 |
| 56 | Lucy Ward Becky Webster Maria Oranges Team Time: | 15:11 19:30 18:15* 54:42* |
| Men | ||
|---|---|---|
| Position | Runner | Time |
| 38 | Peter Noble David Nolan Paul Robinson Team Time: | 12:21 11:52 12:47 37:00 |
| 64 | Harry Tracey Howard MacLennan Mark Flynn Team Time: | 13:14 15:18 13:56 42:29 |
| 70 | Laurie Johnson Aaron Mansell Jamie Harding Team Time | 12:34 15:45 17:01 45:22 |
*Maria’s approx running time. Official time given as 20:01, due to the delay to her start.
