The last round of this 5-race competition took place last Saturday in good weather conditions over a course that still had a fair amount of frozen snow on it. With overall medals to be won in both individual and team categories Chiltern Harriers were unfortunately depleted in most categories, with half-term holidays causing some of the younger athletes to be unavailable. To count in the overall reckoning athletes needed to have finished in at least 4 of the 5 races.
The U11 boy's team were pipped for 1st place on the day, for the first time in two seasons. They finished on the same points as Harrow AC but were beaten on count back by one place using the last scoring athlete. However, that didn't prevent the team winning the league title overall as they had already built a comfortable lead of 64 points over the previous 4 matches. Bill Hughes had already secured the overall individual title but was disappointed not to get a clean sheet of victories in this final race. Having been ill during the week he had to settle for a narrow defeat in 2nd place. Team mates David Wilcox (9th), Ed Mundy (13th), Josh Hughes (18th) and 6 others performed well on the day. Will Perkin was unavailable but he had already done enough with four 2nd places to take the individual silver medal overall. Bill Hughes moves up to the U13's next year but virtually all the rest of the U11 squad are still eligible.
The U13 boy's team were missing two of their leading runners and team leader, Michael Goddard, had been ill going into this race so the team title race was going to be tight right to the end. On the day Bedford & County packed in very well to win narrowly overall (814pts), Windsor SEH placed 2nd overall (813pts) and Chiltern Harriers were 3rd overall with 810pts for the season. Michael Goddard had had already secured the overall individual title but, like his U11colleague, was disappointed not to get a clean sheet of victories in this final race. He was narrowly defeated into 2nd place with Jimmy Davies putting in a very good run for 6th place followed by Alex Johnson (17th) and 6 others to produce a good team performance.
The U15 boy's team came 5th on the day and 6th overall with Dan Barraclough the leading runner in 16th position.
Allan Stewart was the sole representative for the U17 men's team and he produced probably the best performance of the day. He has been suffering from a series of colds since Christmas which possible cost him a County title in January and, although not quite 100% on Saturday, he had a great run. He finished 2nd (5th overall) and was closing on the leader all the way into the line. He was the leading Buckinghamshire runner comfortably beating the County champion and the other medallists from those championships.
The Senior men had several leading runners missing from their line-up but an outstanding run from Eddie O'Gorman into 4th place earned him the individual silver medal overall for the season. He was ably supported by Matt Bennett, home from university, finishing in 8th place and Fabian Downs (16th). With 6 other runners finishing in the top 100 the team placed 5th on the day and overall.
With the Senior Women and younger female athletes also doing so well, Chiltern Harriers AC finished 4th overall in the league just failing to emulate last season's 3rd place.
Gary Howells