Birmingham’s Sutton Park once again hosted the English Road Running Association’s Men’s 12 Stage and Women’s 6 Stage Road Relay Championships on Saturday afternoon, with Liverpool Harriers the top placed local team on the day in 20th.

Just a week after his marathon debut, Dejene Gezimu (26:36) ran a strong opening leg to put Liverpool in seventh before Tom Rogerson (15:59) moved through to fifth on the second stage.

A storming third leg from Charlie Hulson (26:15) moved Liverpool through to first place, clocking the sixth fastest long leg of the day.

Alternating long and short stages Liverpool remained in the top 10 until the eighth leg thanks to excellent performances from Laurie Luscombe (17:13), Ricky Challinor (28:23), James McNally (17:20), David Devine (27:19) and Kevin Bell (16:38) before falling to 20th on the final four legs with Aaron Jarvis (30:17), Richard Burney (16:42), Callum Grant (32:04) and Jonny Mullen (17:21) all producing fine runs.

Wirral were the next local team to finish, in 53rd, with Philip Langan recording their fastest long leg on the fifth stage and U20s runner Joe Wigfield (16:49) running an outstanding 16:49 on the first of six short stages.

Earlier in the day, the ERRA 5k Championships saw young athletes compete for U17 and U15 titles, with Wirral’s Tom Spence producing a splendid run to finish third in the U17 men’s race in a time of 17:05, with club mates Arran Kearney (seventh), Martin Hurst (eighth) and Jacob Brophy (ninth) all inside the top 10 to help Wirral to the team title on the day.

Ellen Kearney narrowly missed out on a medal in fourth position in the U15 girls’ race clocking 19:49 just ahead of team-mate Elyse Kedzior-Macdonough (20:41) in seventh.

Scarlett Liddy in 11th helped Wirral to second on the day with Wirral’s B team also securing a podium finish in third led home by Isabel Hodder in 14th. In the same age group, Finan Johnston ran well to finish in 12th in the men’s race.

Gezimu's first in Mersey Tunnel 10k

Two thousand runners remembered the 96 Liverpool fans who lost their lives in the Hillsborough tragedy with a minute’s applause before taking part in Sunday’s BTR Mersey Tunnel 10K race.

The 13th annual race coincided with the 29th anniversary of the football disaster, which claimed the lives of The 96 on 15 April 1989.

To mark the poignant date, runners joined in with a minute’s applause to remember The 96, their families and the survivors.

The race started in Liverpool city centre and finished in New Brighton – with 2,000 runners enjoying the rare and unique experience to run under the River Mersey and through the Kingsway Tunnel.

Having ran an opening leg for Liverpool Harriers at the National Road Relay’s the previous afternoon Dejene Gezimu was first home in a time of 32:15 ahead of Kristan Matuszczak (Altrincham) in 34:46 and James Wootton from Liverpool clocking a finishing time of 35:05.

The first female finisher was triathlete Helen Sahgal, representing Liverpool Pembroke Sefton Harriers with a time of 38:32.

Sahgal’s fellow club member Lisa Gawthorne finished second in a time of 39:40, with Kirby Milers’ Carmel Triggs coming in third with a time of 41:26.

At the St Helens 10k, Matthew Crehan was a clear winner ahead of second place Karl Taylor (33:40) with the St Helens athlete breaking the tape in 31-minutes and 21-seconds.

In the women’s race Crehan’s teammate Kelly Hamilton took top honours in a winning time of 40:18.