READING Athletic Club grabbed a commendable sixth place in the 45–54 age category of the British Masters Road Relay Championships at Sutton Park, Birmingham.

The three-stage relay took place on a challenging undulating 5km course and, with two long hills to climb, sensible pacing was key.

With more teams entered this year – 20 in total – it was always going to be a tough job to beat the fourth place finish they achieved last year.

The trio were led off on stage one by Sue Francis, who ran strongly to clock a pleasing 21m 13secs, handing over in eighth position. Such was the strength of the field, though, the leading three teams had already opened a large gap on the chasing teams.

Sarah Urwin-Mann made a welcome return after a long recovery from injury to take on stage two.

She clearly relished the return to competition following six months out, gaining three places and recording 20:33 to hand over to Julie Rayfield for the final stage. Rayfield set a strong and consistent pace, setting a lap time of 21:58 to bring the team home in sixth place, in a total time of 1:03:44.

The race was won by Winchester & District (1:00:28) ahead of Tonbridge.