It was another busy weekend for our distance runners and their coaches as the seniors competed on Saturday and the young athletes on Sunday. In both cases the elements made the conditions tricky with wind, rain and mud to contend with.
Senior Men
The men's race took place at Abingdon Park in Northampton and once again Omar Ahmed took the top spot with a winning margin of almost 15 seconds. He was ably backed by Kadar Abdullahi in 3rd, Alex Tovey 10th, Ed Banks 12th, Tom Beasley 14th and Mike Tanner in 18th to give points total of 58 putting the Club in first overall on the day and yet again beating both Birmingham and Loughborough University teams.
The B team is lying in second place and scoring for this team were Jonathan Bradley (24), Alex Jolly (28), Orlando Corea (44), Andy Peat (59), Abraham Ahforom (61) and finally Ben Griffiths (79).
Overall Birchfield top the table with a lead of 212 points so are well on the way to successfully defending their title.
Senior WomenThe North Staffs league have different ideas of what constitutes a cross country course to us. With seemingly acres of good grass land fifty percent of this course seemed to be on gravel tracks leading to much discussion about the choice of footwear, the resultant consensus being trainers were the best option and fortunately this turned out to be ok. It was a much-reduced field, with three clubs not fielding a team. We were also lacking numbers but had a good enough team on the day. Sadly though Bryony Gunn was unable to join us due to recovering from a fall and Ejiro Okoro because of a lingering infection which did mean we were missing some key athletes.
One hundred and forty odd athletes set off and immediately disappeared from view only reappearing towards the end of the first lap where we had Hayley Carruthers and Niamh Brown from Birmingham University neck and neck followed shortly by Kelly Butler, and Carli Baldwin then Ella Shirley making her debut league race for us, as the scorers for the team. Not far behind were Francis Vickers, Sarah Conway, Rae Nicholls making a return to competition after injury and the ever reliable Nicola Ross. As ever not a lot happened to change that on the second lap other than Hayley being literally pipped to the post to finish 2nd and gaining invaluable points for the team. Another really strong run by Kelly, brought her home in 12th. Carli Baldwin had a great run to finish 15th. Closing the scoring was Ella Shirley cheered on by her whole family and the dog, she finished 29th.
The other runners ran well with Francis Vickers 34th, Rae Nicholls 56th, Sarah Conway 59th and Nicola Ross 70th.
We were 2nd team home on the day beaten only by Birmingham University which was an excellent result and should keep us in 2nd place overall.West Midlands Young Athletes Cross Country League - Nuneaton
The lack of anyone to host this fixture led to Nuneaton stepping in to ensure the youngsters had a fixture in January. Although the course and set up is not ideal, being very tight in places our athletes rose to the challenge to run well. Thankfully an early downpour stopped and left the day fairly dry, although the conditions underfoot got heavier and heavier as each race went by.
U17 Women
As always this was the first race off and we just had a team of three girls as many of our girls were unable to run for a variety of reasons. First home was Ellie Taylor in fifth with Sailihah Baig 24th and Chloe Pettit 26th. Although third on the day the team is still lying in second place overall with one fixture to go.
U17 men
When looking at the start line it was a sea of black vests, and that was despite missing some athletes. Josh Robins went off hard but unfortunately had to pull out due to injury which thankfully has turned out to be a mild calf strain. The rest of the team were up at the front though and there was a very close battle between Sam McFall and Jamie Cooper with Sam taking the honours on this occasion. The team positions were Sam 5th, Jamie 6th and James Vaughan 9th. Following behind were Alex Stapleton 11th, Dylan King 12th, Chris Djiala 26th, Isaac Searle 33rd. Oliver Chinn 35th and Ben Parker 43rd. This was another win on the day and keeps the team in first place overall.
U15 Girls
Late withdrawals due to illness and some injury problems meant we fielded a much weakened team in this age group. With some of the girls who did run also feeling below par it was always going to be difficult to maintain a medal position and so it proved. Olivia Scott was the first girl home in 8th and a much improved Tulah Searle was 11th. Amelia Taylor, one of the girls sufferring, finished in 24th and Maya Whitehouse was our last competitor in 68th. Unfortuneatly Emmeline Grace had to stop due to injury which meant we did not have a full team to score so are now standing in fourth place after scoring over 200 points less than in previous fixtures.
U15 Boys
This is a very strong team and the boys did not let us down. They went into the race with a strong lead overall and another excellent performance meant they continue to dominate this age group. The top scorer was Finlay White who finished in second place behind Alex Adams of Stratford for the second week running. Not far behind were Finnan Robins in 7th, Tyler Hawley 10th, Alex Dickson 11th and Max Chappelle in 12th to make up the team. This resulted in a team score of 963 points which puts them in a strong position to take the title after the final race at Wolverhampton. With Luca Bradley 15th, Daniel Hawes 17th, Leo Merritt 24th and Thomas Foster 61st it was an excellent performance from all the boys.
U13 Girls
This age group is dominated by Wolverhampton and Bilston who have a very talented crop of young girls. However there were some encouraging performances from our girls. Amira Hamilton is starting to get back to her best and finshed strongly for 6th place. Lexie Robins had her best position of the season for 10th place. Next came Cassie Pearson 55th, followed by Kelsey Tozier 63rd, Livia Casey 75th and Ava McMorrow 97th.
U13 Boys
We are strong across most of the age groups in our boys teams and black vests were once again at the front of the field. On this occasion it was Charlie Smith who took the honours of being first, saving his sprint finish to beat his teammates for fourth place, his highest position of the season. Not far behind were Ash Burgess in 7th, Oliver Cresswell 8th and Jesse Bradley 12th, who had a great run considering he had competed in a very tough cyclocross race the day before and was convinced he was going to run badly. Our last counter for the team was Kristian Corbin in 46th place and not too far behind him were Jack Hendley-Smith 58th, Daniel Ryan 65th, Simeon Swain 66th and Avi Aruja in 83rd. The team are second overall but not far off first place.
U11 Girls
We did not have a full strength team for the first time this season, a situation compounded by one of the girls unable to finish. Phoebe Sharma showed her usual grit and determination to be the first girl home in 3oth with Tess Burgess 46th and Sadie Silva 55th. Hopefully we will be back to full strength for the next meeting.
U11 boys
We did manage to field a full team in the U11 boys and most of these boys are just starting out in their athletics career. Seb Grant was our top scorer in 32nd and Corin Bradley, the third of the Bradley brothers was 38th. Oliver Shortman was our third athlete to finish in 56th with Marlley Clare 70th and Liam Connell 79th. These boys are learning a lot this season and they will be an integral part of our teams in the future.
We have dropped a place in the overall club standings due to the lack of athletes but there is all to play for in the last race at Aldersley Stadium on 9 February.