21st November 2017
RUGBY AND NORTHAMPTON VICTORIOUS AGAIN IN CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE
Four team victories lead to second successive WMYACCL triumph
Rugby & Northampton emerged victorious once again in the West Midland Young Athletes Cross Country League, winning Match Two at Warley Woods last weekend thanks to an impressive four team wins.
Both under-11 age groups ran out winners, as did the under-13 girls, and under-17 males. The U11B event saw all five scorers finish in the top 13, with Arthur Tilt crossing the line in seven minutes and eight seconds for first place. Lewis Robson was third in 7:20, and he was soon followed by the trio of Nathan Lamb (7:38), Ollie Walls (7:43) and Oliver Bell (7:46) who finished ninth, 11th and 13th respectively.
It was the same story in the U11G, with Olivia Willson the quickest R&N athlete home, finishing fourth in 7:49. Seventh, eighth and ninth went to Ella Darby (8:10), Lara Turner (8:12) and Georgia Leics (8:14), before Lucie Caulfield rounded off the scoring in 13th, in 8:23.
Three top-10 finishes came the way of Alice Bates (3rd — 11:38), Olivia Williams (4th — 11:39) and Elspeth Unitt (7th — 11:56), before Alice Bennett (12:09) and Madeleine Jacks (24th) completed the five R&N scorers in 12th and 24th, giving the U13 girls team success.
For the winning U17M team, three scorers were needed to clinch top spot, and they were Adam Searle (18:02), Adam Caulfield (18:09) and Matthew Chronicle (18:47), who finished second, third and eighth.
The U13B took second place overall, with Louis Buttrick grabbing a top-10 position, placing ninth in 10:37. His brother, Jenson, was next over the line (14th — 10:51), prior to Luke Turner (10:57), Finlay Heard (11:03) and Oliver Birch (11:06) completing the course. They earned respective finishes of 20th, 22nd and 25th.
Noah Bennett was 10th in 13:15 to lead the U15B to third place, with Jake Louis (14th — 13:29) and Lewis Panter (16th — 13:32). Finlay Ward squeezed into the top 20, finishing 19th in 13:42, and Ben Willison completed the scoring in 34th, in a time of 14:06.
Rounding off the day were the U15G and U17W, who were both fifth overall. Claudia Searle (13th — 15:00), Holly Walker (37th — 16:08), Amelia McMurtrie (40th — 16:13), Isabelle Rippon (50th — 16:36) and Sophia Hill (53rd — 16:44) scored for the U15 team, while the three U17 athletes combining for the U17W were Amy Walker (5th – 18:45), Lucy Stevens (23rd — 20:25) and Rhea Cooper in 20:40.
Elsewhere over the weekend, Angela Copson BEM clinched victory in her age group for the 10th year in succession at the British and Irish Masters International Cross Country race held in Northern Ireland.
Representing England, the R&N athlete won the W70 age group by over four minutes and has now gone 29 consecutive races unbeaten in Championship Cross Country races.
Over a distance of 6k, Copson completed the Derry course in 28:41, with her nearest rival crossing the line in 33:02. The latest title caps a hugely successful year for the 70-year-old in which she went unbeaten in all 12 of her Championship races, taking her overall gold medal tally to 98. She broke 13 British records, 10 European and eight World bests.
As well as being voted the Daventry & District local Sportswoman of the Year, Copson was a finalist in the Northamptonshire Sports Awards and has also been nominated in the Athletics Weekly Readers’ Choice for British Masters Athlete of the Year.
