First year U17 Clarice Underwood continued her outstanding winter indoor season at the National Championships. Competing in the 60m Clarice won her heat in 7.76secs and followed this by winning her semi-final race in 7.73 secs. In the final another fine run saw her equal her Pb 7.72 secs to win the bronze medal behind two of the best sprinters in the UK at this age group.
Chiltern Harriers training partners Tom Evans (first year U17) and Joel Williams (U15) also enjoyed the experience of this level of competition for the first time. Both were competing in the 60m event. Joel looked good in his heat finishing 2nd in 7.58secs just a fraction outside his 7.55 Pb. In the final he was a bit disappointed with his performance when finishing 8th in 7.63secs but the experience will prove invaluable. Tom produced a Pb 7.41secs when finishing 4th in his heat and was delighted to earn a place in one of the semi-final races. Although placing 7th in 7.46secs in the next round he was pleased with his performance in the tense atmosphere of a National competition.
This venue is one of the best in the country for both athletes and spectators alike. Weather conditions were good but the course was very muddy causing race times to be much slower for all categories. This year Sky Sports viewers were treated to the full 4½ hours of excellent live cross-country action, and the athletes (and spectators) were able to spend Sunday looking for glimpses of themselves on video recordings.
This event is a big attraction for TV with the best runners in the UK representing all the English counties plus Area teams from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. With most races having over 300 starters the standard of competition was high and the Junior Men and Women's races were being used for selecting the World C-C teams.
Although Chiltern Harriers had a number of senior athletes absent for various reasons they still had 15 athletes representing Buckinghamshire covering most age groups. There were 3 in the U13 Boys 3k race and they helped secure the best Bucks team performance of the day by placing 13th out of over 40 teams. Sonny Harvey had another good run starting 4th in the pen he finished as 4th Bucks in very creditable 88th position just one second ahead of first year Dan Barraclough who cleverly worked his way through to 92nd place after starting at the back of the pen. Oliver Church still building confidence after an ankle injury ran bravely to finish in 143rd position and had well over half of a large field of runners behind.
In the U15 Boy's 4.5K race the Harriers also had 3 team members. While Will Hayter (167th) and first year Alex Watson (174th) were finishing just a few seconds apart Alex Shelley was showing more signs of a return to the form he was in prior to the hamstring injury suffered early in December. The Fastbreak of Chesham sponsored athlete started from 8th and last in the pen but despite conditions that didn't suit the taller runners he finished in 106th position as the 4th Bucks scorer. Bucks placed 16th team.
Another Fastbreak sponsored athlete Bex Myers was competing as a first year in the U15 Girl's 4K race. Her winter has been badly interrupted by a couple of sporting injuries but with a good block of training behind her in 2007 she is beginning to come back to form. With a strong second half run Bex secured a very good 84th position as 3rd Bucks finisher to help the team into 14th place.
Traffic problems meant that first year U17 Women Louisa Lingley only arrived 20 minutes before her race started. Undeterred Louisa went about her business with a positive run to finish 132nd and helped the team to 18th place.
U20 Matthew Bennett, a first year in the age group, had a good run in the World Junior Trial 8k race finishing in 90th position in the middle of a very strong field of runners. The team finished in 19th place. In the Junior Women's 6K race Rebecca Moorhouse finished in 122nd position.
In the Senior Men's 12K race Owain Jones found the conditions difficult to get into a good tempo of running but was reasonably happy with his 68th position when leading Bucks to 27th place in the team competition. Eddie O'Gorman had a very good run on the day and finished in 148th and 2nd Buck's athlete. Veteran Derek Brown was very pleased with his run on the day starting from 9th in the pen he moved through the field to finish 4th Bucks in 202nd position. A few places behind was a disappointed Tom Beedell in 209th place and ruing the wrong information that the race was 3 laps long when it was in fact 4. Patrick Wallace completed the Harriers line-up finishing in 257th place.
The English Schools Cross-Country Championships take place at Leeds on 24th March to wind up the cross-country season.
Gary Howells
Coach/ Team Manager
Chiltern Harriers AC