European CC Trials, Liverpool
The club had representation in most of the McCain UK Cross Challenge races at Liverpool yesterday which doubled as the European Trials. We had top 10 finishers in Canaan Solomon and Bella Hoy, and a good 29th place finish by Matt Gunby in the Senior Men's race. For our Young Athletes, this was a great chance to get experience of racing at national level rather than local Met League level.
Video of men's race (10 minutes, featuring Matt Gunby and Alex Cornwell)
Starting with the older race categories, we had Matt Gunby and Alex Cornwell running the Senior Men's race, Cornwell in the U23 category. Cornwell ran his usual aggressive start before drifting backwards to finish 63rd and 20th U23. While there were 480 finishers, the top 100 is composed of many of the best men from around the country, while the lower ranks are composed of those running the local league race. Cornwell took several very useful scalps such as Charlie MacLean of Bristol, who was 2nd in the quality Gwent League a month ago, and Dean Lacy, who was 2nd in the London Champs last weekend. Matt Gunby ran a very solid race indeed for his 29th, finishing 10-15 seconds down on big names like James Walsh of Leeds and Jonny Mellor of Liverpool.
Gunby was 1' 25" down on winner Jonny Taylor of Morpeth, with Cornwell one minute further back.
U20 Men: Ed Shepherd, an outsider for a place in the GB U20 team (5 automatic + 1 discretionary place), suffered the misfortune of a heavy mid-week cold, and could only manage 37th, but he was still only a minute down on the winner. James Stockings was a good 74th in this high-quality race of 110 finishers, all who had come especially for the Trials.
U20 Women: Lauren MacGregor was 54th in a quality field of 65.
U17 Boys: Perry Rowan finished a solid 46 out of 18, around 90" down on the winner.
U17 Girls: Jessica Burgess was a fine 27th, 16" ahead of Amelia Barrett in 34th. Winner Bobby Clay was almost 2 minutes ahead.
U15 Boys: Canaan Solomon, in his first year in the age group, was an excellent 7th, only 16" down on winner Jos Kerr of Edinburgh, in a field of 126.
U15 Girls: Alicia McArdell was 55th and Jodi Ratcliff 59th, 9" behind, in a field of 106.
U13 Girls: Bella Hoy was a very fine 8th, 34" down on winner Khahisa Mhlanga of Chelmsford, in a field of 98.
U13 Boys: Kyle Lundie was 45th in a field of 127.