ATHLETICS

2 Mar 2020 01:22
Published by: Scott Callan

The cross-country season came to an end with what can only be described as a tsunami rather than a splash. The Nation Cross Country Championships were held at Wollaton Park in Nottingham. A beautiful country park setting with knee-deep water sections and some felled logs to negotiate. Thanks to our resident photographer Jon-Paul Kearns, the day was captured in fabulous detail.

Our U17 Girls braved the elements first, over a 5km course and with 258 competitors. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to field a full team, but Alice Davies had a fantastic run placing 60th overall with Lauren Burgess taking 206th place.

Next up were the U15 Boys, with James McGraw (290th) and Frederick Bailey (309th) competing for Stockport over the 4km course.

Our first full team of the day came in the U13 Girls race, with Freya Murdoch taking an amazing 18th place, backed up by Sophie Ellwood (63rd), Niamh MacKintosh (66th) and Saffron Meade (99th) to take 7th team place overall. Ellena Walker had a great run, coming in 178th with Rosie Philbin fighting until the end and taking 243rd place.

With the course well and truly churned up and resembling a swimming pool in some places, the U17 Men took to the stage. After 6km of sloshing through mud, Ed Corden took 128th place, Harry Ellwood 157th and Tobin Rose 179th.

385 competitors made it to the start line of the U13 Boys race. William Bailey had a fantastic race over the 3km course, just missing out on a top 50 position in 53rd place. Ben Sturgess was only 2 minutes later to cross the line in 270th place.

In the U15 Girls race, after wading through the 4km course, Isabel Brundrett finished in 240th place with Lauren Dewsbury taking 304th, Libby Martin coming 355th and Holly Newton taking 370th.

Stockport’s Junior Women had a  successful 6km race, coming 9th team overall with brilliant individual positions. Heather Corden took 59th, Emilia Gajda was not far behind in 97th and Lauren Robinson just missed out on a top 100 place with 105th.

Elizabeth Apsley had in incredible race for the Senior Women against competitors who normally compete for England in International events. Out of 920 runners, Elizabeth stormed through to an amazing 39th place with Mollie Williams running an equally fierce race, taking 52nd overall.

James Corden was our solo entrant for the Senior Men’s race, coming in 793rd out of 1716 competitors over the 12km course.

Luke Farrant made his BUC Championships debut in Sheffield and not only achieved a club record in the 800m but qualified for the British Indoor Championships with a time of 1.52.03. The club record has stood since 2007 so this is an amazing achievement, not to mention that Luke is only 18 years old! We are excited to see what his weekend in Glasgow brings!

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