English Cross Country Relays - Sat, 1st Nov 2008 - Mansfield
On Saturday the largest WSEH team for years competed in the English Cross Country Relays at Berry Hill Park , Mansfield . For most of the 35 strong junior squad it was their first experience of this high quality event and they all rose to the occasion.
The Under 15 Boys team were the first to race, with the team achieving best finishing position for WSEH on the day, taking bronze medals. The team of James Tidd, Kegan Lymn and James Bennington finished in a superb third place (See attached photo). All 3 boys were in the top 20 times overall, a great achievement which bodes well for the other major championships after Christmas. James Tidd led the team off in 10th place, this was followed by Kegan Lymn who swept the team into fifth. On the last leg James Bennington paced his race superbly, beating the Leeds City runner by less than half a second and just missed out on silver by only 5 hundredths of a second. The B team were 45th and the C team were 62nd in a field of 88 complete teams.
In the Under 15 girls race the team of Naomi Barbour, Laura Suggitt and Christina Hall were 33rd out of the 74 finishing teams.
The Club regained their momentum in the next race where the team of Abbie Schmid, Ruth Bourne and Chloe Allen finished in an excellent 5th place. Abbie, who was suffering with a virus, led off the team and, after starting strongly, started to struggle with her breathing. As she visibly wilted the B team runner, Eloise Milbourne, caught her up and rather than storming past, showed a great team awareness and ran the last half mile with Abbie, who battled through to finish the leg in 35th place. Ruth Bourne then ran the club’s best leg of the day, running the 4th best leg overall, moving past 28 runners to 7th place. Chloe Allen ran another fine leg, just missing out on a medal by less than 10 seconds. The B team, aided by Eloise’s superb piece of team running finished in 28th pace out of the 72 teams, a fantastic performance.
Next up were the Under 13 boys team of Gus Cockle, George Gathercole and Jack Rowe
finished in 11th place, although 2 of the team are only 11. The star of the team was Jack Rowe who ran one of the top 20 times in the event, moving the team up 19 places on the last leg. The B team showed what great strength in depth the team has by finishing in 25th place out of the 64 finishers, the best B team in the country.
Unfortunately the Under 17 women’s team were missing a couple of their star runners and the team of Jess Wilkinson, Sarah Spears and Hannah Barefield finished 28th out of the 38 teams.
There was another high for the local club as the Under 17 men finished in a superb 7th place. The team of Nick Lingley, Elliott Woolmer and Rikkie Letch all ran well and are really starting to show what great potential they all have at cross country as well as being amogst the top track athletes in the UK .
Team Manager Trevor Raggett was really proud of the squad who all showed great commitment on the day and hopes that this is a big step towards more success in the rest of the cross country season.
The surprise of the day perhaps came in the Under 20 Mens event where Alex Tovey saw off several Junior Internationals to bring WSEH home first on the opening leg. The glory was short lived however as the remaining team members Luke Turton and Cameron smart were forced to give ground – the team eventually finishing in 30th place.
It was a similar story in the Senior Ladies race where Sophie Morris was in the pole position on the opening leg, clocking the 2nd fastest overall time in 10m.03 secs. Rebecca Taylor, coming back after a long illness, was timed at 11m.00 secs and final leg runner Kerry Harty brought the team home in 6th place in 10 m21.
If anyone is interested in joining what is becoming one of the top squad in the country please contact Dennis Daly on 01753 686169
