Alex and Georgie lead way as Stratford AC shine against region's best

STRATFORD AC athletes produced their best ever performance at the Midland Cross Country Championships in Nottingham on Saturday.

The regional event is the next stage on from the County Championships and is the chance for athletes to gauge themselves against the region’s best.

With three top-ten places achieved on the day across all age groups, it would appear that Stratford AC athletes continue to collectively punch above their weight.

The venue was the picturesque Wollaton Park, and the course was the usual mixture of steep undulations, wet marshy bogs together with a tricky large log jump thrown in for good measure. This meant that the times were somewhat slower than the County Championships.

The under-17 women started the day’s racing in driving rain. Abi Wootton (42nd, 22.58) negotiated the 5km well, racing with and keeping just ahead of Daisy Musk (41st, 22.55) until the final straight when Musk, despite suffering with a nose bleed, managed to overtake her team-mate just before the finish line.

Olivia Hall (62nd, 24.36) and Edie Hutchinson (64th, 26.07) tackled the course with equal determinedness and helped the age group team to finish tenth overall on the day.

The rain eased for the under-15 boys, but strangely the temperature seemed to dip.

Cameron Black (82nd, 16.47), Fin Hutchinson (92nd, 17.25), Ned Campbell (94th, 17.42) and Harry Gravelsons (95th, 17.50) resumed their intra club rivalry, and pushed each other all the way round the 4km course, in a close fought race.

With four counting for the age group team competition, no points were lost and the under-15 boys finished in 13th overall.

In the under-13 girls’ race over 3km, Ellie Deaner (100th, 15.22) was running fluently until unfortunately injuring herself slightly on the log jump.

However, she kept going and finished the race, though not as high a position as she had perhaps hoped for or recent form would imply. While in the under-17 men’s race, Ben Jones (65th, 26.03) and Rhys Mahon (67th, 27.05) both equipped themselves well over the challenging 6km.

The first ever medal for Stratford AC in the Midland Cross Country Championships was claimed by Alex Adams (2nd, 11.17) in what was a truly fantastic performance in the unde-13 boys’ race over 3km.

Adams started calmly, putting himself around tenth place after the first few hundred meters, and then gradually made up ground over the long straight to the log jump and the strength sapping muddy stretch, and into third place after the first lap.

He then showed his strength by keeping up the high tempo, moving into second and opening up a comfortable gap, with an eye on first place.

However, the gap proved too much to bridge over the final lap, with Adams maintaining his position to claim the silver medal.

Not too far behind, Adam Tayor (29th, 12.36) was having his own brilliant race. A fast start followed up by some really strong running, taking one place on the long uphill climb to the finish line, enabled Adam to claim a terrific top 30 finish.

The under-15 girls’ race over 4km echoed the race before from a Stratford AC perspective.

Georgie Campbell (3rd, 15.45) avoided the extremely fast start, keeping back just outside the top ten and then used her trademark strength up the first climb overtaking the majority in front of her and into second place.

A competitive race ensued and Campbell found herself in fourth after the first lap and then increased her tempo to gain third place and managed to maintain this position, despite many challenges, to win a much deserved bronze medal.

Ellen Taylor (19th, 16.47) was equally as dazzling as her brother, going out strongly early on and maintaining her position edging past two competitors in the finishing straight to claim a top 20 finish.

The only under-20 representation for the club was Oscar Barbour (9th, 29.14) who ran exceptionally fluently over the tough 8km.

Barbour started relatively slowly, but pushed on strongly through the 8k race to pick up places to ensure a top-ten finish, which is a truly amazing performance given the quality of the competitors in this age group.

The penultimate race was for senior women, also over three laps and 8k.

The Stratford team was led by Zoe Chandler, continuing her comeback season.

Although not quite at her best, Chandler ran consistently throughout the race just behind the lead group to finish in 15th (33.14) after battling on the finish straight to hold off a strong challenge from a Bristol athlete.

Emily Adams (135th, 42.16) is in heavy marathon training and her stamina showed in the tough conditions as she battled through.

Suzi Graham (175th, 45.24) and Rebecca Pridham (198th, 47.52) both enjoyed good runs and finished strongly to ensure that the team finished in a very creditable 22nd place.

Unfortunately, Stratford AC did not field a full team in the final event, the senior men, despite their recent successes in league competition.

Nevertheless, the five-man team all ran well in the four lap, 12k race. As is often the case, Tim Hutchinson (109th, 49.38) was the first finisher for the club, although he found the marshy areas tough going.

David Smyth (234th, 55.55) held his form well throughout the race and should be pleased with his run.

Stratford stalwart and men’s team manager Malcolm Bowyer (263rd, 57.06) rarely misses a cross country and could be relied on to run well.

Finally, having their own battle were the final two Stratford runners of the day Dave Wolstencroft (424th, 66.28) and James Deacon (431st, 67.38).