Buckinghamshire AA Cross Country Championships

Chiltern Harriers had a very successful Bucks Championships on Saturday at a grey and windy Ampthill Park in Bedfordshire. There were individual wins for Soraya Roughton (under 11 girls), Kara Gorman (under 13 girls), Maddie Hughes (under 17 women), Alex Hughes (under 15 boys), James Palmer (under 20 men), George Brown (senior men), and Nick Hughes (vet 50 men) and team wins for the Under 13 Girls, Under 17 Women, Veteran Women, Under 13 Boys, Under 15 Men, Senior Men and Veteran Men.
 
There were also several other individual medallists and other Chiltern teams that were in the top three. Several athletes obtained qualification to take part for Buckinghamshire in the National Inter Counties Championships on March 11th at Loughborough. The courses at Ampthill were hilly and varied in terrain but generally drier than expected after recent rain.

The first race was the Under 11 Girls and Soraya Roughton had a great run to win with debutant Holly Knott third, Branwen Harman ninth and Emilia Ingham tenth. The team was second.
 
The Under 13 Girls race was a great result for Chiltern with the club filling the first four places. Kara Gorman won the race, with Evelyn Wildman (second), Maya Davis (third) and Nia Clarke (fourth) completing the scoring. Also running well were Megan Lockwood in sixth and Carys Jones in 11th. The Under 13 Boys were also team winners with Thomas Reynolds (second), Charlie Quantrill (third), Felix Danielli (fifth), and Hugo Mundy (tenth) being the scoring four. Also running well in a strong team were Jacob McCall (11th), Isaac McCall (12th), Theo Roughton (13th), Eddie O’Brien (14th), Luke Coultate (15th), and Vadym Poltorak (19th).
 
The Under 15s continued the strong performances. The girls were second to the very powerful MK team. Leading the scorers was Lucy Wilkinson in fourth, backed up by Issy Robinson (ninth), Katie Allsop (tenth) and Marlie Nkoane (13th). Other good efforts came from Alice Peckham (15th), Jocelyn Davies (17th), Rebecca Lawson (20th) and Abigail Masters (28th).
 
The Under 15 Boys gained a convincing win with Alex Hughes being individual winner and Daniel Munn (second), James Holdsworth (fourth) and Aidan Suleyman (fifth) completing the scoring. Rory Hilton was sixth, Max Roughton seventh, Zach Cleary ninth, Dylan Rossi tenth, and Mattie Gemmell 14th.
 
The U17 and U20 Women run together and the Chiltern team were easy winners with Maddie Hughes winning the race narrowly from Frankie Baxter, and Allegra Massey in fourth completing the scoring. Ellie Shield was sixth, Maddie Rae eighth, Sofia Lomas 12th, Jo Snelling 13th, Annabelle Hilton 16th and Ellie Gowers 20th.
 
The U17 and U20 Men also compete together. In the U17 part of the race Thomas Redmond won silver with Matt Evans seventh and Sammy Bennetts ninth. James Palmer was seventh overall and first U20 and Henry Webb was fifth U20. U20 Tom Emery was well paced but had to withdraw after rolling an ankle.
 
The Senior Women did very well missing team gold by just one point and the Vets were team winners. In a small race the Chiltern scorers were Bex Nkoane in second, Ellie Bates fourth and Katie Royals fifth. The winning Vets threesome was Bex, Abi Askey ninth and Tamsin Finch 12th. Miriam Kempson was third in the Vet 55 race.
 
The Senior Men had a convincing win and filled the podium. George Brown won on the tough, 10k course with Will Brown second and Richard Slade third. Making up the six scorers were Aran Davidson in sixth, Alex Aldred in eighth, and Nick Hughes in 11th. Nick won the Vet 50 category and lead home the victorious Vets quartet of Neil Turner 18th, Michael Turney 21st and Ian Lawson 29th. Adam Shute was 13th and Jonny Slade 28th.