BIRMINGHAM CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE DIVISION 1
COVENTRY JANUARY 14th 2017
Elisha De Mello became the ninth Rugby & Northampton AC athlete to make the top twenty in Division One of the Birmingham Cross Country League when he led home the club in 17th place at Coventry’s Coundon Hall Park.
The 21 year old covered the 5.5 miles course in 27:25 to help the team finish in 9th spot in this third fixture of the season.
The next man over the line was William Gardner in 32nd position on 28:10 and is now just one race away from becoming the club champion. Robert Male followed in 61st with 29:05 and achieving a best ever 70th place was the first veteran for the club Stephen Marks on 29:29.
Junior Ben Musgrove clinched 100th spot on 30:23 and completing the scoring six was Alistair McDonnell (111th in 30:39).
The result lifted the A team three places to 9th in the overall standings and with the B team finishing 7th they also climbed to 9th in the league.
The whole of the B team was filled by Veterans with Paul Birch leading the way in 116th on 30:50. Mike Andrews followed on 31:15 in 127th, then came Dean Oldfield with a personal best 149th spot (32:02).
Closing out the top 12 were Brendan Moen (154th in 32:09 ), Jonathan Taylor (167th in 32:43) and Nigel Roberts (181st in 33:14 ).
R&N had seven other athletes taking part with Vince Carroll (200th in 34:06 ), Adrian White (252nd in 37:30), Daniel Nikel making his league debut (259th in 38:06), Adrian Reast ( 264th in 38:23), Terry Egan returning from injury in his 115th league race ( 269th in 38:53), Ian Wright (275th in 40:28) and John Saw (282nd in 43:11).
The Midland Womens League Division One took place at Aldersley Leisure Village in Wolverhampton and 5 athletes turned out for R&N.
Amy Sarkies had her best performance of the season to finish in 31st spot overall and 5th veteran in a time of 25:12. Junior athlete Rebecca Leadbeater recorded 26:17 for 42nd (13th U20 ) and there were season’s best positions for veterans Angela Copson BEM (66th in 28:05), Zoe Shepherd (73rd in 28:43) and Minerva Chesser (80th in 29:15).
The Senior team finished in 9th place with the Veterans coming 5th.
The fourth and final race is a joint fixture with the Mens Birmingham League at Warwick University on February 11th.
