We’ll start this week’s round up by taking a moment to thank everyone who was involved in putting on the Midlands Cross Country Relays. There are far too many people to mention here individually but they all made a massive contribution, and we were able to host the event and make it a massive success despite some issues with car parking on the day that were completely out of our hands. It just shows what this club can do when we pull together.
Numbers were down at the Midlands Counties XC Relays in the younger age groups due to a fixture clash but there was still some very competitive racing, and the club were amongst the medals. Seb Palmer was a team of one in the U13 boys, leading the field a merry dance to record the fastest time of the day clocking 11.00.99. The only athlete to come close to breaking the eleven-minute mark. The U13 girls placed 4th with Chloe Cashmore-Jones taking the first leg in 12.42, Biba Guest going second and clocking 12.54 and Anaiya Patel bringing the team home in 16.18, in a total time of 40.55. The U15 girls also placed 4th in a total time of 40.44 with Kiki Guest running 12.55, Amaiyah Pal 13.58 and Alice Cattell clocking 13.50. We had an incomplete team in the U17 boys race with Lucas Fullwood running 11.06 and Aryan Pal recording a time of 12.14.
The senior men claimed a superb silver in a total time of 1.18.03, Jack Bonser ran 19.28 over the two-lap course, James Neilson got the club up into 1st place with a 19.04 leg, Ryan Hodgkiss lost a place but ran a rapid 19.47 and Louie Lambeth just held off a fast-finishing Bristol & West runner to take silver clocking 19.43. The B team placed 8th in 1.22.12 with Jonny Morris recording 19.38, Alex Kelly 20.47, Steve Newman 20.52 and Alex Blair 20.53. And there was an incomplete C team of Tom Pryor who ran 21.55, Serge Guy, making his senior xc debut, clocked 23.32 and Paul Dean ran 23.06. There was another medal, this time a bronze, in the masters competition where the team finished in 1.25.10, with Luke Maskew running 20.30, Paul Marson 21.27, Gary Worrall 21.31 and Ben Foster 21.41. The B team placed 7th with Ben Pilsbury running 22.43, Paul Rogers 23.35, Jay Patel suffering some navigation issues and coming home in 26.03 and Tom Isherwood crossing the line in 20.45 to add up to 1.33.09. The C team of Andy Dyall with 34.58, Sunny Sunar in 24.42, Dave Norman with 26.52 and Garry Palmer with 23.20 placed 11th in a total time of 1.39.54, and we also fielded an incomplete D team of Russ Blair who clocked 33.46, Rob Edwards with 26.40 and Lee Partridge who crossed the line in 29.33.
The senior ladies had an incomplete team after a late drop out but the two remaining athletes were happy to run with Maria Calliea clocking 32.09 and Scarlett Willoughby, on her senior debut, recording a time of 29.48. And the master ladies bagged themselves some medals with the A team of Emily Simmonds with 27.28, Vicki Mackey who scorched around the course in a lightning quick 22.33, good enough for a gold medal for the fastest masters leg, and Lucie Tait-Harris with 28.05 pocketed a silver medal finishing in 1.18.07. And a massive well done to the B team who claimed the bronze medal with Louise Webster recording 27.49 and resisting the temptation to throw something in the hammer field, Danni Braine with 30.12 and Julia Condon with 37.44 finishing in a total time of 1.35.45.
There was more xc action at Himley Park in the West Mids Schools AA County Trials where Adelaide Southall placed 12th in the Junior Girls race over 2.5k, Harry Monkton won the Junior Boys race over 3.8k in 10.47, with Nahum Worrall taking 3rd in 11.14. Grace Hendy won the Inter Girls 3.8k race in 11.38 with Clara Butler-Montero taking 12th in 14.57. I apologise if I’ve missed anyone as all I have is an excel spreadsheet with names and not clubs.
And despite a couple of local road races on Sunday the only other club representation I can find was in Canada where our marathon couple ticked off another 26.2 event in the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon. Dave Joynson clocked 3.36.19 to place 1452nd and Gill Mitchell was 6783rd in 5.42.51.
Dave Norman
