English National CC: Young Athletes
Saturday’s National Cross Country Championships at Alton Towers provided a fitting finale to our young athlete club cross country season and it also resolved the order of merit in the season-long Frank Webb Trophy.
Those anticipating a repeat of the relatively dry course in 2008 were disappointed as the heavy overnight rain saturated the course and visitors were greeted with a sea of mud. Those staying locally overnight also awoke to the sight of snow on the higher ground with a smattering still evident on some of the fields surrounding the course early on. Once out on the course, runners found several waterlogged sections, plenty of sloppy mud and a vicious hill which was a focus for the vocal spectators who crowded each side of the incline. Several of the junior races were shortened (it seemed with flawed logic) as the St John’s Ambulance staff were unable to get to some parts of the course although this did not stop these parts being used subsequently. This also resulted in some delays, the U15G in particular being kept waiting for 25 minutes whilst the problems were resolved.
Our highest placing of the day was Canaan Solomon’s 25th in the shortened U13B race which was reduced to two laps of the upper field. Canaan was the second Essex runner home, the first being the winner, Benfleet’s George Elliott (who also won our County Championships at Hadleigh). Daniel Rowden also had a good race, finishing 51st (3rd Essex) in the 327 strong field.
Lauren MacGregor was our only representative in the U17W race, the first event of the day finishing in a fine 37th place and as the second Essex runner home (2nd placed Jessica Judd being the first). James Stockings led the U17M quartet home with his 43rd place with Liam Blaikie (98th) one minute and 20 seconds down, Ryan Dunne in 115th (a further 25 seconds back) and Sam Benge (on his least favourite surface) closing the team in 230th - the team finished 11th of the 20 teams.
Our other scoring team was the U13G quartet which finished in 18th of the 38 teams from the day’s largest junior field of 363 runners. The team shows promise for the future and were led home by Alicia McArdell (48th) with Isabel Lavine 34 seconds down in 85th, Jodie Ratcliff in 156th and Rosie Poole in 188th – for the latter three, this was their first National and they coped very well with the experience.
Alex Cornwell was rightly pleased with his 45th place in the U20M event; another race that was shortened. The heavy surface does not generally suit track specialist Alex but he felt good and at the end, was the third Essex runner home. Darren Southcott started but was unable to finish after suffering a recurrence of the knee injury which also forced him out of the Southerns and the BUCS.
The U15Gs that were kept waiting in the starting pens included Amelia Barrett, Isobel Moss and Lucy Hayes. Amelia led the trio home in 55th (and 4th Essex) with Lucy Hayes in 232nd and Isobel Moss, 10 seconds back in 242nd but both commendable results on a very demanding course.
The outcome of the Frank Webb Trophy also depended on the day’s races - with the lead having changed hands several times during the season, it was to be decided by those who were able to travel to Alton Towers. Canaan Solomon picked up maximum points on the day but missing a couple of races cost him points. The two ever-present runners, Jodie Ratcliff and Rosie Poole were also in the hunt, as was Daniel Rowden, who only missed one Met League whilst racing in the Essex Schools. Amelia Barrett and last year’s winner James Stockings also missed two races, finishing just behind the leading four runners in the table. This year, we had 36 runners score points, (a pleasing seven more than last year) and the runner who finally topped the table, by 4 points from second placed Daniel Rowden, was U13G Alicia McArdell.