English Cross Country Relay Championships at Mansfield

Chiltern had teams in three age groups on Saturday at the prestigious National Cross Country Relays, held as usual at Berry Hill Park, Mansfield.
 
In good, mild conditions and on a fast, gently undulating course, the U20 Men were first up featuring the trio that had won silver at the Southern Champs two weeks earlier. They ran on the 3k course.

Archie Pinder was running well on first leg but was brought down by a faller in front of him and struggled to regain his rhythm. His lap ended up as 9.41. Euan Pinder made up some places on leg 2 with 9.51 and Leon Doran continued his good form with 9.06 on last leg to bring the team home in 26th.
 
Next up were the U17 Men who had also finished second at the Southern Champs. They had a good race to finish 11th. Alex Hughes ran first leg in seventh with 9.20 and Aidan Suleyman continued the momentum with 9.58 on leg 2 and James Holdsworth ran very well to make up a few places to 11th in 9.40.
 
The Senior Men had a team and a half, and the A team completed a very good race to finish 32nd from 149 complete teams. Simon Bossi ran well on leg 1 to log 16.45 on the longer 5k course, made up of two 2.5k laps, despite tweaking an ankle. Richard Slade ran the team’s fastest leg on leg 2 with 15.17 to make up over thirty places. Aran Davidson ran well on leg 3 with 17.08 and Harry Cox mounted a storming finish to record 16.29. On the B team Finn O’Brien had a good run on first leg of 17.49 and Jonny Slade ran 19.42 on leg 2.
 of 17.49 and Jonny Slade ran 19.42 on leg 2.