This great cross-country venue provided it's usual tough challenge for this prestigious event and the very large fields of athletes taking part in the competition. The weather conditions were cold but sunshine prevailed for this well organised major event. The vast numbers of spectators enjoyed the spectacle of such large fields of runners but parent supporters had to be mobile to get about the course to cheer on their offspring.
For some of the younger Chiltern Harriers athletes this was their first taste of such a big cross-country event with entries from Clubs the length and breadth of England. Bex Myers was undoubtedly the individual star of the day but the U13 Boys team produced a brilliant team performance finishing 11th out of 47 closed out teams, ahead of many of the country's top clubs. There were good runs from all the boys with Alex Watson (71st) leading the team home followed closely by Sonney Harvey (97th), Daniel Loach (109th) and Oliver Church (112th) with just 15 seconds separating all 4 runners. They were ably supported by Robert Smith (217th), Harry Lindsley (240th), Hugh Beedell (247th) and Edgar Aperghis (287th) out of 361 finishers.
The U15 boy's race over 4.5k was the first race of the day and first year Allan Stewart was very slow off his marks. The first 300m are uphill and Allan was in amongst the back markers as he went over the hill. Amazingly 20 minutes later he had moved through the field to finish 146th out of 289 finishers.
Another slow starter, he only made the start line as the gun went off, Matthew Bennett also had to work hard to move through the field of runners in his U17 men's 6k race. Eventually he finished 128th out of 282 finishers.
Both Stuart Ellerby and Tom Beedell are studying at Universities in London so this race was local for them. As it seemed with every race they've competed in this season they have finished just a few seconds apart and this was no exception. Over the 10k course they ended up 2 seconds apart with Stuart in 62nd place, despite suffering from a cold, and Tom, in his last race as an U20, in 65th place out of 177 finishers.
Gemma Turtle, coming back from yet another spell out through injury, had a good run to finish 8th in her final race as an U20 and had the bonus of leading her first claim club, Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers, home to third place and team bronze medals.
Gary Howells
Coach/Team Manager
Chiltern Harriers AC