On the back foot

RUNNERS get the race with a difference under way.

ATHLETICS: TWO local runners took a step in a different direction by competing in the first ever UK Backward Running Championships.

David Emanuel from Littleborough and Middleton’s Chris Eavers, members of Royton Road Runners, successfully negotiated a hilly one-mile course at Heaton Park to come sixth and ninth respectively.

Ireland’s Garret Doherty won the curious competition, hot on the heels of his gold medal at the World Backward Running Championships in Austria.

Visit www.roytonroadrunners.co.uk