The last big national cross country event of the winter, the English Schools Cross Country Championships, took place at Pontefract on Saturday on the relatively dry and undulating grounds of the racecourse. It was a red letter day for two Chiltern athletes.
After good runs as first years in last week’s National Inter Counties at Nottingham, Tom Ford (in the Junior race) and Alex Hughes (in the Intermediates) ran brilliantly as second years at English Schools to gain selection to run for England Schools in next Saturday’s SIAB international in Dublin. Tom was running for Hertfordshire Schools in the Junior Boys race, second on the programme and at 3.2k quite short. Tom was always well placed and kept his form to finish fourth in 10.06, the same time as the third placed athlete. Tom’s Herts team won the silver team medal. There were several other Chiltern runners competing for Buckinghamshire Schools – Charlie Quantrill 81st, Logan Gaskell 269th and Eddie O’Brien 318th. Alex was in the fourth race, the Intermediate Boys, who ran 4.5k. Alex was at the head of the field, then fell back slightly before rallying for an excellent third place. Edward Johnson was second Bucks scorer in 119th place, Aidan Suleyman third scorer in 223rd, Callum Powell seventh Bucks in 304th. The Junior Girls race saw Kara Gorman make her debut at English Schools and finish a creditable 13th and first Bucks scorer. Maya Davis was fourth Bucks scorer in 144th, Evelyn Wildman fifth scorer in 124th, Nia Clarke sixth scorer in 140th, Megan Lockwood seventh Bucks in 218th. The Bucks team was a good seventh overall. In the Intermediate Girls, Emily Ford was 135th and third scorer for Herts Schools, with Marlie Nkoane seventh Bucks in 226th. Bucks’ Senior Girls also ran well for seventh team. Maddie Hughes was third scorer in 50th, Frankie Baxter fourth scorer in 75th, Ellie Shield fifth scorer in 137th, In the Senior Boys race over a gruelling 6k, Archie Pinder was fourth Bucks scorer in 150th, Euan Pinder was fifth scorer in 154th, and Isaac Jessop-Tranter sixth scorer in 175th. Top o’ the evening to you, Race Report fans, on St Patrick’s Day. I hope you’re not feeling the ill effects of any green Guinness and have enjoyed your weekend.
Congratulations, first of all, to any Harriers who were in action at yesterday’s ESAA English Schools Championships in Pontefract. I know we had at least one pretty epic performance from Alex Hughes, so do keep your eyes peeled for the full report. If you’ve not read them yet, you may also want to catch up on results from the Inter-Counties cross country championships, held in Wollaton Park, Nottingham, on 9 March. Chiltern Harriers had 31 athletes in action at the UK inter-counties cross country championships, held at Wollaton Park in Nottinghamshire on 8th March 2024. On what was a rare dry day this winter, the ground underfoot was surprisingly firm leading to some good racing, albeit with some challenging hills thrown in. The U13 girls provided Chiltern Harriers' only medal of the day, courtesy of Kara Gorman, running for Buckinghamshire, who finished an excellent 3rd in the hotly-contested race. Also running for Buckinghamshire were: Juliette MacDougall (40th); Maya Davis (114th); Nia Clarke (115th); Bea Robinson (139th): and Soraya Roughton (239th). In the U17 women, Chiltern had three representatives. Frankie Baxter was 91st and Alice Packham was 217th, both running for Buckinghamshire. Running for Hertfordshire, Emily Ford was 93rd. There was another strong Chiltern showing in the U20 women, with the club contributing four of Buckinghamshire's five runners. Maddie Hughes finished in a creditable 32nd, with Ellie Shield (65th), Charlotte Docwra (104th) and Maddie Rae (115th) also running. Buckinghamshire had only one senior women running. Katie Royals finished in 228th. This was Bucks' only incomplete team of the day and the hope is to field a full team at future championships. Moving onto the male races, the Bucks U13 boys ran very well to place 8th overall. Two Chiltern athletes were in the team: Logan Gaskell (91st) and Zac Taylor (205th). The U15 boys also had a strong Chiltern contingent. Tom Ford (Herts) was the first Chiltern athlete home in 58th. Running for Bucks, Thomas Reynolds was 90th, Aidan Suleyman was 130th, Charlie Quantrill finished in 155th and James Holdsworth placed 178th. Alex Hughes was the star of the show for the U17 men, finishing in a very strong 8th place. He was supported by team mates Daniel Munn (245th), Rory Hilton (262nd), Jack Turner (264th) and Toby Radbourne (287th). Running for Hertfordshire, Euan Pinder placed well in 116th, as did Archie Pinder in 145th. In the U20 men's race, Ash Finch was running for Hertfordshire. His 43rd placing helped his team to a 7th place finish. Finally, the senior men took to the course. Richard Slade continued his excellent form to finish 20th against some incredibly tough competition. Adam Shute also ran well to finish 195th. There was good representation in the Bucks Swans teams at the Primary Schools and Year 7 Cross Country Championships at Prestwold Hall on Saturday.
The highlight was a win in the Year 7 Girls race for Juliette MacDougall, who has a great record in this competition. Also featuring in a strong Swans team performance were Bea Robinson (17th), Loren Gerber (38th), Holly Knott (42nd) and Soraya Roughton (96th). In the Year 7 Boys team Toby Reynolds did well for 38th and Zac Taylor was 61st. Emilia Ingham ran well for 16th in the Year 6 Girls race and Ingrid Bellwood (40th) and Elodie Bellwood (57th) did well in the Year 5 Girls event. Well, what a weekend. From the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow to parkrun, it’s been a really fabulous weekend for running and athletics.
Firstly, a huge well done to Blayden - son of our former, well-loved Harrier Shelley Trigg - who completed the Tokyo Marathon today in 5.01.35, and collecting the coveted ‘star’ on her behalf for completing all of the six world major marathons. A beautiful tribute for a beautiful person. Well done, Blayden, from all of us at Chiltern Harriers. Race report 24 - 25 February: parkrun, Battersea and London Winter 10ks, and Half Marathon action25/2/2024
Good Evening, Race Report fans. I hope you kept your feet dry this weekend, although I fear that may be very unlikely. Thank you to all who joined in with the Food Bank Run at training on Tuesday evening. With our friends from ‘Welcome to Running’, we collected 200kg of donations for the Chiltern Food Bank - a great achievement. A special thanks to Julia Aliaj for organising, ably assisted by Beth Lang (photography) and Lindsey Ben (logistics). Good evening Race Report fans from Race Report HQ. I hope that you managed to dodge the rain this weekend and enjoy some almost-Spring-like running. Also, I am going to apologise up-front to anyone who might have been competing the British Masters Indoor track and field champs at Lee Valley. While Your Humble Race Reporter has a good deal of stamina, checking some 130 odd separate events was a bit too much even for her!
There were five Chiltern Harriers taking part in the England Athletics indoor champs at the EIS, Sheffield at the weekend.
Euan Pinder and Isaac Jessop-Tranter tackled U20 800m, Archie Pinder U20 1500m, and Emile Morti and Taye Awuku-Chan U15 60m hurdles. Euan and Isaac were involved in 800m heats on Saturday. Issac was fifth in heat 2 in 1.59.21 and Euan ran a season’s best 1.56.82 to be third in heat 3. Unfortunately neither went through to the final. Emile and Taye both ran in heat 1 of the 60m hurdles on Sunday. Both gained PBs, Emile second in 8.96 and Taye fifth in 9.34. Emile made the final and improved his PB again to 8.92 to be a very good fourth. Archie Pinder was in a straight final in the U20 1500m on Sunday and ran well to be fifth in 4.10.48. All five did very well in this top level of indoor competition. Although it was a mild and sunny day, the underfoot conditions were extremely muddy at Oxford Horspath on Saturday for the final Chiltern League match of the season. Many described it as the muddiest race they had ever done and conditions got progressively trickier as the course cut up. Chiltern Harriers went into the match 550 points behind Milton Keynes and, although the club took the win on the day, it wasn’t enough to close the gap and it ended up 17102 points to 16881 with Wycombe Phoenix 1000 points further back in third. Eighty-one club runners took part. Emilia Ingham won the Under 11 Girls race to clinch the title for the season. The team ended up in sixth with Emilia often the only Chiltern competitor.
There was a full team however in the Under 11 Boys race and newcomers Thomas Cooper and Jonathan Kalibbala had good runs to be 12th and 21st. Jack Dixon was 23rd and the team was fourth. The team was eighth overall and Thomas Living, who didn’t run on Saturday, had already clinched third spot in the league. The Under 13 Girls have been dominant this season and had another great match to secure the overall league win. Kara Gorman secured her fourth win, ensuring the individual title. Juliette MacDougall was second to confirm league silver and the other scorers were Nia Clarke in fourth and Maya Davis in sixth. Also running well were Annie-Rose Quantrill in ninth, Soraya Roughton tenth, Holly Knott 13th and Carys Jones 18th. Unfortunately Bea Robinson had to drop out. Nia and Maya ended up fourth and fifth overall. The Under 13 Boys had a good match and did enough to move up a place into bronze medal spot. Logan Gaskell was seventh, newcomer Toby Reynolds an excellent 13th, Kit Dixon 19th and Jacob McCall 23rd to score as third team. They were well backed up by Isaac McCall 28th, Harrison Lawrence 31st, and Albert Rushton 41st. Logan ended the league season in fifth place with Zac Taylor 16th and Kit Dixon 18th. Good packing has been the key to Chiltern’s U15 Girls keeping in silver medal place behind the MK juggernaut, and Saturday saw good runs by Megan Lockwood 10th, Evelyn Wildman 12th, Issy Robinson 13th, and Katie Allsop 16th, confirming second on the day and second overall. Lydia Cross was 26th and Mimi Daley 41st on debut. End of season league standings saw Issy ninth, Evelyn 12th and Megan 13th. The other team apart from the U13 Girls to excel in the league were the Under 15 Boys, and a fifth consecutive win saw them clinch the league title. Tom Ford had a great run to win on the day and Edward Johnson (third), James Holdsworth (fifth) and Charlie Quantrill (sixth) completed the winning team. Also running well were Thomas Reynolds (eighth), Eddie O’Brien (13th), Dylan Rossi (25th), Charlie De Sousa (28th) and James Malin (32nd). In the final individual standings Tom was second, James fourth, Edward fifth, Thomas sixth and Charlie seventh. The Junior Women have had a tough battle this campaign but won on the day to ensure the league victory. Frankie Baxter was fourth, Emily Ford sixth, and Maddie Rae 14th to score and they were backed up by Jo Snelling 18th, Lily Jessop-Tranter 23rd, Jocelyn Davies 31st, and Rebecca Lawson 32nd. Emily ended up fourth overall with Lily ninth, Roxie Jones 11th, and Rebecca 15th. With fourth place on the day the Under 17 Men confirmed fourth spot overall. Jack Turner had a very good run to lead the team home in ninth and he was followed by Daniel Munn (12th), Callum Powell (16th), Rory Hilton (23rd) and Hari Mistry (26th). Overall Jack was 12th and Hari 18th. By the time the senior women ran at 2.35pm the course was a swamp and even the leading runners were finding it a struggle. The Chiltern team were third on the day and second overall. Jessie Keighley led the team home in 21st with Charlotte Docwra (24th), Fiona Kelleher (25th), Orla Williams (32nd), Katie Royals (35th), and Jess Orr (38th) packing well to complete the scoring. Also flying the green flag on Saturday were Jenny Bizley 50th, Abi Askey 52nd, Sylvia Moss 59th, Claire Mistry 67th, Miriam Kempson 92nd, Harriet Lemon 93rd, Kathy Jessop 114th, Tamsin Finch 115th, and Fiona Calder 121st. The vets were eighth on the day courtesy of Jenny, Abi, Sylvia and Claire, finishing seventh in the league overall. In the final league senior standings Katie was eighth, Fiona ninth and Charlote 11th. Abi and Sylvia were 10th and 11th in the Vet 45 category and Mim fourth in the Vet 55s. The Senior Men were bolstered by cameos from Harry Cox and Angus Wiliams, and Richard Slade recovered from his 5k PB at Armagh to win the race and secure the individual title after four wins in a row. Harry was third, Ash Finch tenth, Adam Shute 18th, Angus 19th, James Turner 34th, Tom Dixon 56th, Jonny Slade 58th, Neil Turner 60th, and Aran Davidson 84th after suffering with a stitch. Those scorers secured second place on the day and the seniors were fourth overall. Other good efforts on the day came from Mike Turney 94th, Ben Hannen 112th, Alan Crozier 124th, Richard Moss 139th, Ed Wright 168th, Frank Gaymond 179th, Glen Martin 180th, Neil Bates 186th, Clive Docwra 188th, and David De Sousa 192nd. Ash was first Under 20 on the day and the vets foursome of James, Tom, Neil and Mike were fifth. The U20s ended up fourth but the vets secured bronze medals for the season. And in the individual vets standings Adam Shute was third in the Vet 40 category, James Turner 7th. In the Vet 50s Neil Turner was second and Mike Turney was a convincing winner of the Vet 60 competition. Chiltern won three of the five matches and completed another very strong Chiltern League season. There was a good turnout of Chiltern athletes running for their schools at the Bucks Schools Cross Country Champs at Stowe School on Wednesday. There were a number of individual wins and several runners gained automatic selection for the Bucks Schools team for the English Schools Champs in Yorkshire in March. Many others put themselves in the frame as squad members. The Year 5/6 girls race was won by Emilia Ingham who won the race overall and the year 6 component. Ingrid Bellwood was 12th overall and 3rd Year 5 and Elodie Bellwood was 18th overall and fifth Year 5. Thomas Cooper ran very well to be 14th in the Year 5/6 Boys race, 12th Year 6.
The Minor Girls (Year 7) race saw an emphatic win for Juliette MacDougall. Also well up in the field of 93 were Bea Robinson (5th), Holly Knott (8th), Soraya Roughton (9th), Annie-Rose Quantrill (12th) and Mala Bahia (17th). The Minor Boys race saw the best run of the season for Zac Taylor who took an impressive win. Two newcomers ran well: Toby Reynolds was third and Harris Lawrence 13th. Kara Gorman won the Junior Girls race and there was good packing from Maya Davis (4th), Nia Clarke (5th), Megan Lockwood (6th) and Evelyn Wildman (7th). Carys Jones was 26th from a field of 122. The Junior Boys race was billed as 4k but strava revealed a circuit around 4.8k, so a tough ask for younger runners. There were many very good Chiltern performances on this tough course. Thomas Reynolds led the way in second and was followed by Charlie Quantrill (3rd), Logan Gaskell (5th), Eddie O’Brien (6th), Felix Danielli (9th), Hugo Mundy (13th), George Mawby (14th), Jacob McCall (24th), Kit Dixon (30th), Isaac McCall (32nd), and Theo Roughton (34th) from another field of 122. The Intermediate and Senior Girls ran together on the same 4.8k route. The seniors tended to be towards the front of the race and there were 16 in total. Maddie Hughes (3rd), Frankie Baxter (4th), Ellie Shield (5th), Maddie Rae (9th) and Jo Snelling (10th) all did well. There were 55 Intermediates running and the highest placed Chiltern athlete was Marlie Nkoane in 9th. Also competing were Katie Allsop (11th), Lily Jessop-Tranter (22nd), Ffion Harman (24th), Lydia Cross (27th), Issy Robinson who had a rare off day with breathing difficulties (28th), Abi Masters (29th), Rebecca Lawson (40th) and Isla Dalby (50th). Intermediate Boys and Senior Boys also ran together, this time on a 5.6k route, testing for year 10s not used to the distance. Twenty-one seniors battled hard and Archie Pinder (4th), Isaac Jessop-Tranter (5th) and Euan Pinder (7th) all ran well. Chiltern had a strong presence in the Inters and Alex Hughes took a good win, Aidan Suleyman was third, Edward Johnson fifth, Callum Powell seventh, Daniel Munn 11th, Rory Hilton 12th, Jack Turner 15th, Dylan Rossi 25th, Zach Cleary 27th, and James Malin 46th. |
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