Youngster secures R&N first ever National Cross Country Championships medal
Adam Caulfield became Rugby and Northampton Athletic Club’s first-ever National Cross Country Championships medallist when he won bronze in London on Saturday.
Caulfield took his place among a field of 395 under-13 athletes and put in a phenomenal performance, completing the Parliament Hill course in a time of 12 minutes and three seconds to finish third, narrowly ahead of Warrington AC’s Samuel Evans in fourth.
There was further success in the capital for R&N, with Jacob Allen impressing in the junior men’s event. Allen crossed the line in 34.29 to finish sixth out of 190 competitors, just over a minute behind Reading AC’s Jonathan Davies (33.26). Meanwhile, Emily Waugh was up against 895 runners in a mammoth senior women’s race, and a time of 34.19 earned her an excellent 61st place.
The under-15 boys secured a top-10 placing by finishing ninth out of 37 competing teams. Adam Searle (16.50) and Josh Lay (16.54) led the way for R&N, crossing the line just seconds apart in respective positions of 23rd and 25th. Joe Musgrove was 72nd with a time of 17.36, and Jack Carey’s 157th place (18.31) rounded off a fine team effort in an event that was won by a strong Tonbridge AC outfit.
Paul Birch was the star of the show for R&N in a senior men’s race that featured over 2000 competitors, with the veteran securing his best-ever placing of 318th after coming home in 47.11. Birch’s R&N team secured 58th place among the 145 teams.
Elsewhere, the club also had a strong showing at the Lee Valley Middle Distance Open last week, with a number of season and personal-bests being set.
There were a trio of PB’s in the 800-metre races, in which Kirsty Goddard made a fine start to her indoor season. Goddard’s time of two minutes and 22.32 seconds in the under-20 women’s event was a new PB, and club-mates Oskar Potomski and Lauren Cunild followed suit. Potomski set a time of 2:08.82 in the under-17 men’s, while Cunild’s 2:44.24 was her best-ever performance as she impressed in the under-17 women’s.
Finally, there was more joy for Searle, who carried his cross-country form to the track with a strong 1500-metre time of 4:24.65, which sent the youngster to the top of the under-15 boys UK rankings.
