This year’s Warwickshire County Cross County Championship was held at Warley Woods in Smethwick on Saturday, 4th January. Rugby and Northampton Athletics club came away with the under 15 girls team shield in addition to individual medals for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places.
The Warwickshire County Championship was again combined with the Worcestershire County Championship. This year it was Worcestershire’s turn to host the event. The original location was Churchfields in Droitwich, however, due to recent poor weather, the location was changed to Warley Woods, Smethwick, an undulating course familiar to those who run in the West Midlands Cross Country League.
The under 13 boys were first off with a 3km, 2 lap course. Rugby and Northampton AC had 3 young athletes competing: Oliver Bell was first back in 11th place, followed by William Gower in 15th place, and Theo Clements finished in 26th place.
R&NAC had teams in both the under 15 boys’ and under 15 girls’ races. The boys set off first on a 4km, 2 lap course. Henry Woodward led the boys’ team back taking 8th place, with team-mates Dominic Evans (12th), Jack Main (25th) and Oscar Mooney (40th) following behind.
The girls’ race started two minutes after the boys’ on the same course. Madeleine Jacks stormed across the finish line in first place. Team-mates Grace Darcy (5th) and Elspeth Unitt (10th) followed closely behind and together they took home the under 15 girls’ team shield for 1st placed team. Last year Madeleine won the under 13 girls’ race.
Sophia Hill took 3rd place in the under 17 Women’s race and Georgina Woodward 6th place in the under 20 Women’s race. The under 17 Women and under 20 Women race together on the 5km, 2 lap, course. Both have qualified for the Intercounties in March.
Tom Tyler came second in the under 17 Men’s race supported by Joseph Comerford (14th) and Ben Leugs. Last year Tom came first in the under 15 boys’ race. The under 17 men raced alongside the under 20 men on a 6km, 3 lap, course.
The senior ladies were represented by Tilly Lea who finished 20th in the ladies 6km, 3 lap, race.
The senior and master men’s race was combined and held over a 10km, 4 lap, course. First home for R&NAC in the senior race was George Goodwin (5th), followed by Lewis Cherry (19th) and Sam Blackshaw (21st). Stephen Marks was the first from the team of master men back in 4th place, followed by Michael Andrews (14th), Nicholas Gower (24th), Jon Taylor (33rd), Sebastion Palmer (37th), Peter Thomas (58th). The master men’s team took 3rd place in the team competition.
Another successful day of racing for Rugby and Northampton Athletics Club. For more information on the club, or how to join, see their website https://randnac.org/
