Warwickshire County XC Championships took place in Halesowen on a course that is technically challenging when dry and proved extremely heavy going underfoot with parts under water and the rest of the hilly course resembling a mud bath.
Rugby & Northampton AC middle distance coach Nick Garner fielded 14 athletes in County Championships across the age groups from U13 up to Senior Women. The best of the bunch on the day was U20M George Goodwin who ran an outstanding race over the 6km to take the gold medal in 21:57 a much deserved victory for his dedication to training over the Christmas period and another fine performance by Ben Sutherland who won the U20M Buckinghamshire Championships in Luton the same day.
The only full team fielded for the juniors were the lively U13Boys who battled hard but narrowly missed out on the team medal with Rhys James (5th), Jack Carey (12th) and Cian Hutton (17th).
In a very competitive U15B race Thomas Haynes and Finn Hutton performed well to finish 23rd and 25th respectively with particularly impressive downhills from Finn on a treacherous section of the course.
Yoseph Wilson lined up alongside George Goodwin in the U20M race in his first competitive XC full distance race and finished strongly in 32nd place.
The girls headed into the championships with high hopes of medals, and although they narrowly missed out across the age groups all finished in the top ten. Georgina Woodward was the first race of the day and came closest to the medals losing out in a sprint finish to finish 4th by 1 second. Ella Bromley after a splendid start finished 5th in the U15G and Emily Waugh was also 5th in the Senior Women race, below par compared to her recent good form over 6km. Tilly Lea finished 8th in the U20W race over 5km.
Susan Lawrence a member of the popular R&N AC Ladies Running Group showed her club commitment once again to run a superb race, finishing 30th in the masters women category
The Masters Men lined up as the last race of the day with the course well and truly churned up by the preceding races to run 10K. Stephen Marks showed fine form in only his second cross country race with an excellent run to finish 9th with Ian Botheroyd producing a solid run to finish 18th.
Coach Nick Garner also had 3 athletes competing in the Northamptonshire County Championships held at Wickstead Park the Musgrove brothers, Joe (U13B) and Ben (U17B) both ran storming races with Joe taking the bronze medal and Ben finishing 5th in their respective races. Ethan Kent-Whittaker also secured a top ten finish with 7th in the U13Boys race.
Several of the athletes will be hoping to gain selection for their respective County Teams at the prestigious Inter-Counties Championships being held in March.
