Essex CC Champs: Young Athletes
The sight of the Thames Estuary when it eventually appeared as the mist lifted at Hadleigh was readily surpassed by the gladdening sight of Woodford’s young athletes in action during Saturday’s Essex County cross country championships. The results heralded a satisfying mix of medals (individual and team), debut championship appearances and sound, honest effort from all our competitors.
Whilst we had no winners this year, we picked up three individual medals; a silver for Isabella Hoy (U13G) and a bronze each for Perry Rowan (U17M) and James Stockings (U20M). In addition, the U13G quartet of Isabella, Aiofe Guyatt, Katie Petyt and Olivia Hounsome won the team silver as did the U15G team of Rosie Poole, Jodi Ratcliff, Edie Preece and Abbie Dell;in truth, all runners deserved a medal just for finishing.
The course was, as expected after the recent rain, very heavy going – a mud soup hors d’œuvre followed by mud pie with a side order of a challenging clay cliff to be negotiated by all but the U13s. The U13Bs were the first to be tested as they hared off down the start field hill, a few on their sides as they lost their footing in the mad rush for the bottom corner. Alfie Poole was the first of our quartet to return some 12 minutes later with an excellent 7th placing, finishing with an ‘eyeballs out sprint’ with a clutch of four other runners. Kyle Lundie (21st), the diminutive Keelan Wilson (40th) and Chris Hogg (41st) all battled round to get the team home in 6th place. Our U13Gs packed a little closer but no one got near Khia Mhlanga, Chelmsford’s runaway winner. Isabella Hoy’s fine 2nd place was some 43 seconds down on the Chelmsford girl with dependable Aiofe Guyatt turning in another solid performance for 7th place. Katie Petyt, just managing to stave off being sick in the finishing straight, held on for 18th whilst Olivia Hounsome closed the team in 30th for the silver. Katie Woodstock looked somewhat shell-shocked in 36th, due no doubt to a late night return from warmer climes the previous evening.
The U15Bs were deprived of Canaan Solomon so our trio of Harry Cavell (31st), Loren Alleyne (37th) and Taylor Reece (38th) had to fend for themselves round the large lap that included the clay cliff at the start of the weary climb back up the valley side to the finish field; they finished suitably muddied for their efforts but were unable to score as a team. The U15Gs were headed home by Rosie Poole in 6th who just lost out by half a metre in a tight sprint for 5th place; Jodi Ratcliff (8th) turned in a fine effort over a course probably not suited to her style and she was followed home not far behind by Edie Preece (12th) who revels in the muddy conditions. Abbie Dell was a revelation in 16th with a run that should do her self-confidence a power of good as she closed the team for 42 points and the team silver medal behind Chelmsford. Persephone Pritchard made her club debut, surprised herself and produced a storming sprint finish for 32nd. Spare a thought however for Alicia McArdell who would normally have expected to score for the team but was unable to finish whilst suffering from a painful back.
The field sizes in the U17 and U20 races were small by comparison; Perry Rowan, in the bronze medal position and George Hoy (9th) were our only finishers in the field of 22 where only Southend managed to finish a full team. Jessica Burgess (5th), Amelia Barrett (7th) and Stephanie Smith (27th) raced for the U17s alongside the U20W where Lauren MacGregor was just outside the medals in 4th place - just 14 U20W finishers and only Basildon fielding a full team. In the U20M’s event, 21 completed the course with the James Stockings collecting the bronze medal in a race where the first three finished streets ahead of the rest of the field. The championships were also the qualification events for the Essex teams for the Inter-Counties later in the season; five of our runners picked up automatic selection (Isabella, Perry, James, Lauren and Jessica) with another five also likely to get the nod nearer the time.