South of England XC Championships - Young Athlete - the full story
Ed Shepherd produced our most noteworthy result at the South of England Cross Country Championships at Parliament Hill – an U20M individual bronze medal and one place better than his finish here last year.On a day when our junior teams were depleted by numerous absences, Ed’s performance was a bright spot and was derived from his sensible strategy of a cautious start and a gradual move through the field.
The competition surface was very wet and heavy and athletes going off too hard up the first hill were liable to pay a price later on as the Heath was as muddy as it had been for a few years. Ed was about halfway back in the middle of the 105 strong field as it made its way up Kite Hill for the first time but by the end of the first loop he’d moved up to 5th as the runners passed over the top of Kite Hill for the second time. Our other two starters, James Stockings and roadman Lorcan Murphy were also well placed, easily in the top half of the field. On the rise along the far edge of the tumulus field, Ed made his move up to 3rd, holding this position back to the finish field and giving him an 8 second gap over Tonbridge’s Max Nicholls. James Stockings was 33rd and Lorcan Murphy (on one of his rare cross country outings) 48th and little more than a minute down on James.
We managed to put out scoring teams in just two of the eight junior races – again it was the U15s that achieved this. The girls fared a little better than the boys with six U15Gs on the start line. Jodi Ratcliff coped the best and led the girls home in 33rd place. Running stride for stride with Isabella Hoy for the first short loop, she then edged ahead on the hill up to the little copse behind Kite Hill; it wasn’t Isabella’s day however. She was soon to retire from the race allowing Edie Preece to come through as the second team member home in 51st, just 18 seconds down on Jodi and 11 seconds up on Rosie Poole in 60th. Jess Archard, still not fully fit after illness, closed the team in an admirable 147th with Abi Burbidge, introduced for the first time to the reality of Parliament Hill at its heaviest going, getting round in 259th in a field not far short of 300. The girls finished 14th of the 38 teams with a score of 291; Blackheath & Bromley were clear winners with 4 in the first 11.
Our U15B team were hampered by 3 absences but the remaining quartet of Harry Cavell (170th), Taylor Reece (226th), Chris Hogg (228th) and Loren Alleyne (243rd) knuckled down and got on with the job of getting themselves round. Their team finished 36th of the 37 complete teams whilst a single point separated the Tonbridge and Bedford teams who took gold and silver.
In the U13B race, the trio of Joe Geller, Zain Idris and Max Holmes could also have done with some support to make a scoring team. All three were competing in the Southerns for the first time and raced well. With the first 230 runners all finishing within 3 minutes 11” of the winner, the finishing straight was thick with a continuous stream of runners. Taking the wrong line in a corner or stumbling on a tree root can easily loose a runner several places so this will have been a good learning experience for them. All three had good finishes picking up several places on their run-ins; Joe was the first home in 129, followed by Zain (47 seconds back in 194) and Max (a further 28 seconds back) in 226. Max’s greatest pre-race fear was finishing last and this he avoided with ease with nearly a quarter of the field behind him – from little acorns...... Could this be the core of a future U17M team?
In the U17W race, Alicia McArdell was left to fly the Woodford flag on her own and seemed reasonably content with her 64th place, easily in the top half of the field in a race won convincingly by Invicta East Kent’s Bobby Clay who was 47 seconds clear at the tape. Lauren MacGregor seemed to be going well in the U20W event but her good start did not provide the race she wanted as she returns to competition from a long injury break; in the end did not finish but Parliament Hill was certainly not the easiest of tests for her. Aldershot’s Emelia Gorecka picked up the gold in this event, her third in the championships in as many years.