|
|---|
|
The bronze medal winning girls team l-r, Amy Harris, Rosalind Firth,
Ellie Jones, Connie Lewis. |
|
|
|---|
|
The bronze medal winning girls team l-r, Amy Harris, Rosalind Firth,
Ellie Jones, Connie Lewis. |
Full Results Slide show of Craig's and Steve's photos More Photos of the event
Chiltern Harriers Under 13 teams continued their successful winter with great performances on Saturday at the South of England Cross Country Championships held at Hillingdon. The boys finished in fourth place from the 31 teams competing with Michael Goddard collecting the individual bronze, but the girls went one better, winning the team bronze medal.
A light frost soon disappeared and the gently undulating course quickly turned extremely muddy creating challenging racing conditions.
The Under 13 Chiltern girls were led home by Connie Lewis who had another excellent race to finish in seventh place from the field of 221. Second counter was Ellie Jones in 28th followed by Amy Harris in 37th and Rosalind Firth in 47th. The girls ran maturely and all finished strongly, picking up valuable places in the second half of the race. The points total of 119 was only 18 behind second placed Bedford and County with Aldershot Farnham & District clear winners with 56. Also running were Katie Royals, Maria Slade, Amy Buttivant and Claudia McInerney who finished as 27th team.
The 244-strong boys race featured an exciting finish with Aldershot's Matt Arnold just holding onto victory from Bracknell's Tom Johnson with Chiltern's Michael Goddard close behind in third. Michael was followed home by Andrew Stenning in 25th, Jimmy Davies in 36th and James McCarthy in 47th. They finished on 111 points, 26 behind third placed Windsor, Slough , Eton and Hounslow. Again Aldershot came out as team winners with Tonbridge in second place. Chiltern's Alex Johnson (85th), Sam Butcher (108th), Joe Cochrane (132nd), and Joe Aherne (142nd) featured in a very creditable 20th place from the 31 teams as Chiltern's next four finishers. With Toby Jones and Hugo Aperghis also running, the strength in depth of the Chiltern Under 13s was clear to see.
Chiltern also had teams in the Under 15 boys category and the senior men. In the boys race of 252 finishers, Dan Barraclough (85th), George Gillingwater (105th), Jack Dutton (132nd), and Ollie Church (137th) all ran well in a high standard field. They finished as 23rd team from the total of 39. Also running for Chiltern were Liam McDonald (160th), Jack Walker (168th) and Michael Palfreeman (213th). Rob Smith was Chiltern sole Under 17 finisher, coming home in 120th place from 180.
The senior men had the worst of the underfoot conditions with the course rapidly turning into a swamp. A field of 676 runners allowed 52 full teams and the Chiltern six of Ian Lawson (319th), Mark Fallowfield-Smith (320th), Steve Perkin (340th), Roger Ellerby (449th), David Breingan (479th), and Trevor Brawn (636th) finished 45th. Martyn Cartwright was the other Chiltern finisher in possibly his last Southern championships.