Georgie retains her county crown in style
STRATFORD AC athletes enjoyed a fantastic day at the Warwickshire County Cross Country Championships.
The junior athletes led the way with some tremendous performances and deserved honours, while the senior athletes were clearly inspired by what preceded them.
The venue was the tough course at Newbold Comyn in Leamington Spa, that included the unforgiving and infamous ditch and leg-sapping climb up Beacon Hill.
In the opening race of the day, 30 under-13 girls from Warwickshire finished the 3km course.
Ellen Taylor (5th, 13.43) led the Stratford AC team home. A steady, well-paced race enabled Ellen to improve on her position compared to last year by a couple of places despite suffering from a stitch in the final 800m.
Both Ellie Deaner (19th, 15.07) and Freya Fines-Allin (26th, 16.24) appeared to enjoy the challenging course.
The first three home in each age group count for the overall team performance, with the U13 girls’ team finishing in 6th overall.
The under-13 boys’ race is over the same course. Alex Adams (2nd, 12.26) stepped up an age group for the day and clearly demonstrated his maturity.
Adams started comfortably and worked his way through the field, making light work of the water-filled large ditch.
In the home straight Adams battled hard for first place, and only just missed out but he was delighted to take silver honours in the knowledge that he should have a further two attempts to achieve the County Champion title in the years to come.
Matthew Bexson (28th, 14.21) pulled out an amazing finish to catch two other athletes in the closing stages, one of whom was team-mate Ned Campbell (29th, 14.21) who had paced himself well throughout.
Christopher Hunt (35th, 14.53), Harry Gravelsons (38th, 15.39) and Jude Greenwood (40th 16.48) all put in determined performances. The under-13 boys’ team finished sixth overall.
In the under-15 girls’ race, Georgie Campbell (1st, 16.20) continued her recent form and made extremely light work of the one 4km large lap of the common taking the lead from the start.
For the first half of the race, Megan Taylor, from Coventry, stayed in contention but when Campbell put in a mid-race increase in pace, she moved away to eventually win by an enormous 25 seconds.
Campbell was the under-13 girls’ Warwickshire County Champion in 2016 and is the first ever Stratford junior athlete to defend the title across an age group.
Imogen Sheppard (4th, 17.46), Daisy Musk (11th, 18.44) and Charlotte Gravelsons (22nd, 20.43) backed up Campbell’s inspired performance enabling the under-15 girls’ team to finish first overall.
Olivia Hall (9th, 19.05), competed in the Worcestershire County Championships — the overall event on the day was a joint Warwickshire and Worcestershire affair.
Hall recaptured some form of old to come an excellent ninth place and so should be very pleased with her progress over the season.
Eight under-15 boys represented the club and all put in tremendous performances.
Owain Jones (2nd, 15.13) led the team home in commanding style.
A confident start, and good pace throughout, enabled Jones to take second place, some 16 places higher than the previous year.
Cameron Collins (19th, 16.51) and Archie Musk (27th, 17.47) completed the team counting positions that enabled the under-15 boys’ team to finish fifth overall.
Other results were: Josh Angus (28th, 18.01), Adam Pomeroy (33rd, 18.44), Fin Hutchinson (36th, 19.24), Henry Tombs (38th, 20.20) and Sean Mata (42nd, 21.20).
Fin Hutchinson’s performance was particularly pleasing as he started steadily and gradually worked his way through the field to complete probably his best race of the season so far.
The under-17 and under-20s raced together, which meant that with both Warwickshire and Worcestershire County Championships, there were effectively four races within one race.
Georgina Mitchell (6th, 23.05), Edie Hutchinson (17th, 26.14) and Hannah Bexson (19th, 28.02) made up the U17 women’s team that finished fourth overall.
Seren Mahon (6th, 27.03) was the sole Stratford AC under-20 women’s representative, and seemed to really enjoy the challenge of the 5km course.
The under-17 and under-20 men are required to complete 6km, with Seb Hopper (19th, 26.51), Ollie Best (21st, 27.18) and Murray Jackson (22nd, 27.23) forming the under-17 team that finished a creditable third overall to claim their bronze medals.
Fergus Allison (12th, 25.21) and Sam Weaving (15th, 26.14) powered their way round the two laps in the under-20 race.
Following the junior athlete’s lead, the senior athletes took to the stage.
Both the seniors and masters race together, but compete in different races — the only difference being the delicate question of age, with the relevant threshold being 35 years.
Alice Reed (7th, 25.20) led the senior women’s team home in her usual metronomic style.
Lucy Kershaw (11th, 26.33) and Ceri Shephard (24th, 30.17) ran superbly completing the senior women’s team that finished fourth on the day, narrowly missing out on the bronze positon by two places.
Emma Bexson (15th, 29.30) kept at bay a strong challenge from Seanin Gilmore (16th, 29.33), with Sarah Bland (20th, 29.59) continuing to enjoy the cross country season.
Rebecca Pridham (47th, 35.16), Suzi Graham (50th, 36.03), Kate Sergent (63rd, 39.20) and Gemma Smith (67th, 40.31) all had good, solid runs and enjoyed the tough conditions just like many of the junior athletes. Bexson, Gilmore and Bland made up the master women’s team that finished fifth on the day.
With no senior men taking part, it was down to the master athletes in the last race of the day.
The team was led home by Rich Shephard (3rd, 37.19) who gave the tough course short-shrift to claim the first masters men individual medal by a Stratford athlete.
Tim Hutchinson (25th, 41.59), Ivan Sarti (42nd, 44.14) and David Smyth (59th, 45.27) completed the team counting positions.
Wayne Vickers (73rd, 46.33), Kieran Tursner (79th, 47.03), Mike Sheppard (94th, 48.53), David Jones (116th, 52.59), David Wolstencroft (117th, 53.21), Ben Twyman (119th, 53.30), Phil Marshall (138th, 57.41), Neil Musk (149th, 61.53) and Martyn Sergent (152nd, 77.06) all performed well and made up the rest of the master men’s team that finished a creditable sixth place on the day out of a total of 15 teams.
