Athletes from Wolverhampton & Bilston AC were amongst the medals at the weekend, coming away with some silverware on both the road and the country, and also the bits that are neither one for the other.
First stop will be at the Midlands 7 cross country championships where Jonny Morris won a fine individual silver medal over a rolling course at Romsley, Clent, Jonny covered the 7 mile distance in a rapid 38.35 chasing home Alastair Watson of Notts AC by a fraction over 20 seconds. Gary Worrall was next back for the club in 24th place in 46.48, Paul Marson was 24th in 47.30, Rob Sannwald-Dunn was 33rd in 48.35, Ashley Atkinson placed 39th in 49.57, and Tom Pryor was 35th in 50.30, with the team finishing 3rd overall and just doing enough to pip Halesowen to the bronze medal on their home patch. Paul Rogers was 50th in 52.11, Ben Pilsbury was 52nd in 53.38, Rob Edwards finished in 62.12 to take 79th place.
There was more cross-country action at Himley Hall where the younger athletes lined up for the Dave Sunderland Inter County XC races with the West Midlands winning the overall team trophy and Shropshire placing 4th. In the Minor Girls race Chloe Cashmore-Jones racing for Shropshire placed 23rd in 10.21, Biba Guest of Shropshire was 36th in 11.26 in the Junior Girls race, Harry Monkton was 5th for the West Midlands in 9.31 Jonathan Yang pulled on the Shropshire vest to finish 23rd in 23rd in 10.06, Nahum Worrall was 38th in 10.25 for the West Midlands in the Junior Boys race and Grace Hendy for the West Midlands was 4th in 14.36 in the Inter Girls race.
Further afield there was more action at Sefton Park for the Liverpool Cross Challenge where Rocco Hawley placed 27th in the U15 boys race in 10.25 and Jack Stockton was 18th in 14.22 in the U17 mens race.
We were on the multi terrain of concrete, gravel and grass at the Weston Park 10k where Vicki Mackay was 3rd overall and took the 1st ladies prize coming home in 39.41, Lindsay McCallum was 3rd lady over the line and 6th overall, despite an unscheduled pit stop, in 41.01 and Lee Wright placed 21st in 45.48.
And finally there was some fun on the roads of Benidorm firstly over the 10k distance where Lucie Tait-Harris led the club home 177th place, crossing the line as the 13th lady coming and coming 1st in the F50 age group in a time of 40.40, Sarah Thurley was 283rd in 43.08, Dave Norman was 286th in 43.16, Jo Lane was 672nd in 48.16, Emily Simmonds was 659thin 48.28, Vanessa Landreau Barnes was 942nd in 50.54, Lee Partridge placed 1506th in 55.57, Ian Pincher clocked 58.32 for 1887th, Stephen Wagstaff finished in 58.40 in 2022nd, and Pete Hood, now a native of Formby near Liverpool but still down as Wolves & Bilston, was forced to walk the whole distance after being diagnosed with a torn meniscus but refusing to miss out on the trip, finishing in 3964th place in 1.25.05 and with plenty still behind him.
Dave Norman
