South of England Cross Country Relays

There were some good performances in the SEAA Cross Country Relays at Wormwood Scrubs on Saturday but the only medal was won by the Senior Men’s team, the first time a Chiltern senior outfit has medalled at this event.
 
It was a warm, sunny day at Acton and the course was mostly firm and fast. Chiltern’s junior teams were depleted with many families going away taking advantage of the two-week half term.

The first race was a combined U17/U20 women’s race where both Chiltern teams consisted of a duo. U17 Ellie Shield continued her good recent form with a first leg of 11.27 on the 3k loop and Marea Logan followed this up with 12.21. The U20s featured Liv Cameron in 11.45 and Holly Henderson in 11.58.
 
U20 Tom Emery made a welcome rare appearance for the club coming in third with a 9.20 lap and this was followed by Thomas Askey with 9.57. The U17 men competed alongside the U20s and Isaac Jessop-Tranter (10.01), Ash Finch (9.51) and Matt Evans (10.21) were ninth complete team. Euan Pinder had a great run of 9.42 in an incomplete B team.
 
The U13 Girls had one team out on the shorter 2k route and did very well to be fifth. Kara Gorman (7.08), Nia Clarke (7.51) and Megan Lockwood (8.12) all ran strongly in a field of 21 complete teams.
 
Jacob McCall (7.40), Isaac McCall (7.22) and Kit Dixon (8.02) were 12th in the U13 Boys race and Lenny Brooks-Klingenschmidt (8.21) and Felix Danielli (7.53) were an incomplete B team.
 
The U15 girls had two full teams, both of which logged top ten finishes. The A team featured Emily Ford (7.18), Lily Jessop-Tranter (7.20) and Olivia Clarke (7.44) in fifth, and in eighth were the B team of Izzy Martin (7.42), Lucy Wilkinson (7.31) and Issy Robinson (7.31). Rebecca Lawson ran 8.08 in an incomplete C team.
 
In the U15 Boys just one Chiltern team toed the line with Rory Hilton (6.53), James Holdsworth (7.00) and Isaac Collier (7.03) coming in tenth place.
 
The course reverted to 3k for the Senior Women and the A team of Katie Royals (12.04), Bex Nkoane (11.26) and Finola Watkins (11.56) came a creditable 14th. Katie’s time was 54 seconds faster than last year. The incomplete B team featured recent graduates Lizzie Barraclough (13.14) and Jess Orr (14.23).
 
The final action of the afternoon saw the Senior Men tackle a 4k route and pre-race there were hopes that the young team could improve on last year’s 8th place. These were well founded as Richard Slade won the first leg in a brisk 11.40. George Brown ran 11.49 on leg 2 to create a good lead. On leg 3 Cameron Reid ran 12.56 and Will Brown went into leg 4 in a close second to Windsor with Thames Valley close behind in third. An exciting final lap saw Will overtaken initially but then come through to confirm second, just 11 seconds off the win. Will’s time was 11.52. Richard’s 11.40 remained the fastest leg of the whole race.