It was difficult to find athletes from Wolverhampton & Bilston AC as many were pulling on different vests at the English Schools Cross Country Championships so trawling through the age group results trying to find runners competing under the various banners of Shropshire, Staffordshire and West Midlands was a little like panning for gold. Apologies if anyone has been missed.
It was a long journey to Tonbridge in Kent to compete but again the club performed admirably, even if they weren’t competing in the traditional club colours, and the club can claim a schools champion in the form of Louise Hackett who competed for Staffs in the Senior Girls event coming home in 1st place in 14.06 for the win. Beth Dyall had been struggling with injury but still managed an impressive 144th in 16.47. James Neilson ran in the Intermediate Boys race coming 216th in 22.26 and Scarlett Williams finished in 107th place in 15.30 in the Intermediate Girls event. Oscar Davis finished off a good cross country season with 181st in the Junior Boys race in 15.13. and there was more of a club presence in the Junior Girls race with Megan White bringing them home in 159th place in 14.02, Ronni Read was 168th in 14.05, Zena Asbury was 229th in 14.27, Madison Farley 242nd in 14.32, Ruby Buggins 293rd in 14.58 and Eleanor Simpson was 305th in 15.10.
Elsewhere Louie Lambeth was the first from the club to set foot on the track in a competitive event taking part in the University of Birmingham Winter Throws and Distance Meet. Although the thought of a javelin may have been tempting he concentrated on what he had been training for by racing over 5000m coming home in 10th place in the 3rd race of 4 on the day in a time of 16.16.75.
At the other end of the scale Tony Cheema continued his marathon training by turning out in the Ashby 20 and recording a tasty PB of 2.19.45 for 68th place.
And there was a sizeable group at Stafford for the half marathon with Pravesh Patel brining the group home in 6th place in 1.13.55, Ben Pilsbury was 47th in 1.23.20, Lee Pearson finished in 1.25.44 to take 76th place, Lucy Calrow was 5th lady over the line and 3rd in her age group in 116th overall in a time of 1.28.17, Paul Clarke was 167th in 1.30.32, Pete Hood was 236th in 1.35.24 to take the 2nd M60 prize, Rob Edwards finished in 575th in 1.47.37, Mike Temple was 738th in 1.50.56, Chris Marshall bagged 2nd M70 and 826th overall in 1.53.43 and Lesley Stamps was 1294th in 2.05.59.
