South of England Cross Country Relays

​Wormwood Scrubs, home of the South of England Cross Country Relays, is a successful place for Chiltern Harriers in terms of medals, and Saturday’s most recent Championships was no exception. There were three Chiltern teams on the podium on a mild, and occasionally sunny day with the odd shower thrown in.

Chiltern’s best result was in the first race of the day where the U17 Women had a great run to be convincing winners over the 3k course. Frankie Baxter set up the team well, finishing second on leg 1 with 11.15. Lucy Wilkinson looks to be heading towards top form and put the team into the lead with the fastest leg of the whole race to log 10.53, and Lily Jessop-Tranter ran a mature final leg of 11.31 to complete the win.
 
Not to be outdone the U17 Men also ran with composure to win bronze. In form Alex Hughes ran the second fastest lap of the race to be second on leg 1 in 9.23. Euan Pinder with 9.53 on leg 2 and Isaac Jessop-Tranter with 10.08 on leg 3, completed the podium place, comfortably ahead of fourth. The B team of Rory Hilton (10.49), Jack Turner (11.24) and Callum Powell (11.03) were 16th. Also running with the U17s were the U20s where an incomplete Chiltern team featured Ash Finch (9.48) and John Nickless (10.44). Ash was still feeling the effects of his 73 minute Oxford Half from last weekend.
 
The same U13 Girls trio that won silver at the Aldershot Road Relays in September, again took second spot thanks to great efforts from Kara Gorman (7.10), Nia Clarke (7.49) and Maya Davis (7.46) on the shorter 2k loop. Kara’s 7.10 was second fastest lap of the race. Millie Thompson ran in an incomplete B team.
 
The U13 Boys fielded two teams with the A team 14th and the B team 24th. The A’s were led off by Isaac Taylor who had a strong run to log 7.56 and Luke Coultate (7.53) and Jacob McCall (7.59) gradually moved the team up the field. The incomplete B team featured Jack Rogers in 8.09 and Hector Gamblen in 8.02.
 
The U15 Girls suffered from a couple of dropouts in the week and it was just Issy Robinson and Megan Lockwood that competed. Issy in 7.38 and Megan in 7.53 both had good runs.
 
The U15 Boys had won bronze at Aldershot but were one away this time with fourth place. Aidan Suleyman (6.47), James Holdsworth (6.34) and Isaac Collier (6.49) all ran well. There was also a complete B team that finished in 22nd - Tom Ford (6.42), Eddie O’Brien (7.17) and Massimo Schiavi (8.09).