West Midlands Young Athletes Cross Country League

Sunday 10th December 2006

B&R young athletes out in force for league action

Despite the extremely cold weather on Sunday  a strong field of 29 young athletes represented the club in the third round of the West Midlands Young Athletes Cross Country League at Newbold Revel, Coventry.

First off were the Under 11 Girls and as with the previous two rounds Georgie Hartigan battled with Amy Griffiths of Leicester Coritanians.  The girls had started the day on equal points having dominated the previous two rounds finishing within a second of each other and winning one race each with the other finishing in second place.  This round Amy finished first in 7:05 with Georgie 2nd in 7:07.  Completing the U11 Girls team were Molly Savage in 20th, Orianna Ball in 38th, Hayley Bocking in 52nd, Laura Bowmar in 61st and Charlotte Tongue in 80th place.  The B&R U11 Girls are currently in fifth place out of 16 clubs in the League.

The second race of the day was the Under 17 Women, the club had no entries in this category!  As with all of the previous rounds this year, the U17 Women’s race appeared to be a private race between Royal Sutton Coldfield runners with them taking the first four places pushing Cally Read of Cannock & Stafford down to 5th place. Cally had split the RSC runners in the previous two rounds with a 2nd place and 3rd place respectively.  RSC’s Olivia Larcomb repeated her second round 1st place to make it 2 out of 3 so far this season.

First timers Jacob Hood, George Thomas and Callum Blake joined Miles Burke in the Under 11 Boys race to lift the U11 Boys team from last place in the league to 13th out of 16. Jacob ran a superb first race to finish just outside the top ten in 11th place, followed by the strong finishing Miles in 31st, George in 64th and Callum in 72nd.  Another performance like this at the next round should see them leapfrog Leicester Coritanians in the League.

Regular cross country runners Thomasina Ball, Laura Porter and Naomi Barrett were supported by Samantha Lloyd and Kelly Oliver in their first Cross Country of the season.  Laura and Thomasina ran both laps very close together, in the first round this year Laura had finished ahead of Thomasina, this order being reversed at the second round.  They finished the third round within seconds of each other, Thomasina finishing in 40 th and Laura 41st.  Naomi in 60th, Samantha 75th and Kelly 78th completed the U15 Girls team creeping them up the league to ninth place out of 19 clubs.

The Under 13 Boys team looked worried while they prepared for their race as their star runner Chris Warren was no where to be seen.  To their relief Chris appeared before the gun went off!!  As normal Chris started off well tucked in just behind the lead boy.  Not having had the opportunity to study the course Chris finished short of his 2nd place at round two but still in the top 10 and 7th highest point scorer overall this season.  Ben Peat paid for racing too early again following an injury, having to drop out at the end of lap one.  Jamie Scoltock led the trio of himself, Harrison Howie and Jack Morley around the two laps until caught by Harrison in the closing stages with Jack just behind them. Battling together the trio gained a few extra places along the flat finishing straight ending up with Harrison in 57th, Jamie in 59th and Jack in 63rd.  The U13 Boys team jump an extra place in the league to 8th out of 19 clubs.

Following the Under 13 Boys the reliable Under 13 Girls team of Georgie Savage, Sally Hogan, Hayley Oliver and Sarah Worthington lined up on the starting line.  Georgie took Rita’s experienced advice, for the first small lap, of taking it easy; deciding that she knew better at the start of the larger lap, Georgie dictated the pace of the race.  This strategy paid off with only Leicester Coritanians’ runner Georgina Brookes being able to keep up with her.  Unfortunately the B&R runner fell within sights of the finishing line leaving the Leicester athlete to win.  Georgie quickly recovered from her fall finishing in second place, having controlled the pace during the race she finished 10 seconds ahead of Freya Vincent, also of Leicester Coritanians, who she normally fights against for first place.  Georgie remains the top points scorer in the U13 Girls category with 597 points out of a maximum of 600 so far, despite being a year younger than some of the runners in this category.  The other U13 Girls finished as follows, Sally Hogan 32nd, Hayley Oliver 42nd and Sarah Worthington 77th out of a total of 101 runners.  The U13 Girls retain their 9th position in the League out of 18 clubs.

Sean Bowden and Adam Peacock are both running extremely well this season and leave the Under 15 Boys team in 11th place following the third round even though there are only the two of them.  Some clubs in the U15 Boys category have five runners scoring points in each round.  The first lap of this two lap race was very quick with Sean sticking with the leading boy, who eventually pulled out at the start of the second lap.  Sean paid the price of the quick first lap and was caught by Daniel Mills from Nuneaton Harriers and Stephen Parkes of Tamworth AC.  Adam finished in 42nd place out of 68 finishes.

Last up were the Under 17 Men, relieved to get underway before the rain started.  Regular runner Simon Lanckham was missing following his 8th place finish in the Gloucester Cross Country League the day before.  James Hood made a welcome return to cross country replacing Simon as first U17 home for B&R in 15th place.  The U17 Men’s team was completed by Ben Richardson finishing in 38th place and Matin Saawar three places behind in 41st place, both having run superb races against tough competition over this three long lap course.  The U17 Men stand in 9th place in the League following this good performance.

Overall Bromsgrove & Redditch AC are currently in ninth place out of 19 clubs in the West Midlands Young Athletes Cross Country League with 11,797. Royal Sutton Coldfield AC lead the league with 20,083 points having complete teams of five athletes in all eight categories. There are two rounds left this season: January 21st at Weddington in Nuneaton and March 18th at Aldersley Stadium in wolverhampton.We are looking forward to a good turnout at both of these events.

Click here for full results of Round 3

Click here for full results of Round 2

Click here for full results of Round 1

(CS)