Super Saturday.

Warwickshire County Cross Country Championships.

Report – David Parkin, Tony Jackson & Paul Hawkins.

The Warwickshire County Cross-Country Championships are a longstanding event in the calendar. They give athletes the opportunity to race for individual and team medals on the day, as well as selection to represent Warwickshire at the national inter-counties fixture in March.

The event was held at Warley Woods this year, familiar to our junior athletes as one of the annual league fixtures. The races are a little longer than those in the league, giving an extra challenge to all involved. The club had our most successful outing ever with three individual golds, one silver and two bronze, and five team medals.

In addition, the Heeley Trophy is awarded to the best club overall, taking into account all age groups. For the last two years we have finished third but this year we moved up to second place, demonstrating our continued improvement. We finished behind Birchfield but beat last years winners Coventry Godiva.

The U13s race over 3km, with the girls starting immediately after the boys. In the U13 boys’ race, William Mayes (10^th, 10:53), continued his fine league form and looked good as he finished strongly.

Close behind William were James Day (14^th, 11:08) and Henry Wheeler (17^th, 11:19) and, with the first three finishers constituting the team, this was sufficient to give the team an excellent third place overall. The squad also comprised Seb Hillard (18^th, 11:22), Joe Lewis (24^th, 11:35) and Ben Herbert (27^th, 11:51).

The Stratford U13 girls fielded a large team of 11 athletes. Maddie Linfoot (3^rd, 11:05) and Niamh Hillard (1^st, 10:36) were part of a small group that made much of the early running on the first lap before Hillard made a stunning move on the hill at the start of the second lap to accelerate into the lead. She continued to extend her position in an imperious display of cross-country running, even overtaking a number of the U13 boys who were still on the course just before the finish.

Tessa Parkin (9^th, 11:31), running two years under age, had a fine outing to make up the team which placed first overall.

The next three Stratford runners, Abbi Cooper (10^th, 11:47), Caitlin Boyle (11^th, 11:48) and Annie Silvers (12^th, 11:49) worked well together round the course and illustrated the strength in depth of this squad.

Also competing were Martha Paters (21^st, 12:34), Tilly Campbell (29^th, 13:01), Harriet Black (33^rd, 13:09), Ruby Edwards (38^th, 14:33) and Kate Pridham (41^st, 15:02).

In the U15 boys’ race, run over 4km, Alex Adams (1^st, 12:53) last years under 13 winner, successfully won his new age group by leading from the front and looking in excellent form as he has all season. Adams eventually won by 20 seconds over his rival Finlay White from Birchfield Harriers.

Theo Skirvin (16^th, 14:25) and Taylor Stubbins (26^th, 15:37) both ran well to make up the team that secured third place followed by Joe Warner (32^nd, 16:36).

The U15 girls’ race saw fine teamwork from Charly Marshall (2^nd, 15:11) and Olivia Robinson (3^rd, 15:18) who ran together throughout and should be delighted with their excellent showing. Placed 5^th and 6^th on the first lap, they confidently worked their way up through the field, as we have been accustomed to seeing from Marshall in particular in the league races this season. Poppy Fox-Rowe (23^rd, 18:31) completed the point-scoring team which came third, closely followed by Molly Bullock (24^th, 18:44), Martha Hodgson (26^th, 18:52) and Georgia Pridham (32^nd, 23:48) all battling hard on the long and challenging course.

The U17 and U20 races were run together over a 5k course. In the under 17 women’s race Georgie Campbell (1^st, 16:49) successfully defended her title to win by over a minute from the second place athlete.

Remarkably this was Georgie’s fifth consecutive title since she first won as an under 13. Ellen Taylor (5^th, 19:02) who continues to improve in her comeback from a long term injury, started conservatively but worked her way through the field in the second half of the race.

The only Stratford runner in the U20 women’s race was Daisy Musk (20:05) who was also in fifth place and will be pleased with this run as she develops in this age group.

The U17 and 20’s men also ran together but over a three lap 6k course. The club’s U17 men’s team claimed the club’s fifth team medal of the day led by James Mucklow (12^th, 21.31) followed by a fast finishing Josh Dobedoe (17^th, 22:27) and Ned Campbell (19^th, 22:35) in probably his best race yet as he comes back from injury.

There were two more Stratford athletes completing the strong team, Fin Hutchinson (26^th, 24:33) and Cameron Black (27^th, 24:41).

With only two Stratford runners in the U20’s men there was no team award but both runners should be happy with their races; Owain Jones (11^th, 21:30) and Seb Hopper (14^th, 22:12).

The day’s events concluded with the Senior Women’s and Men’s races which both incorporated a separate Masters race.

Stratford completed a team in both Ladies competitions with Sophie Dobedoe (22^nd, 24:25) leading the Seniors team home with a terrific run and placing. Suzanne Ross (27^th, 27:47) and Sarah Vernon (34^th, 28:34) can both be pleased with their runs and their combined scores meant a very respectable 6^th place finish in the team competition.

In the Masters race Emma Bexson 18^th (25:19) continues to be a model of excellent consistency and Yvonne Ganjy 32^nd (27:27) can also always be relied upon to provide a strong supporting role.

Liuba Pasa 47^th (28:24) who is enjoying her first British cross country season, was the final team scorer and overall they placed 7^th Team. Rebecca Pridham 59^th (29:59) was her typical smiley and gutsy self as the final finisher from the club.

In the Senior Mens race Josh Newman 15^th (31:49) was our only runner following several withdrawals due to injury but that only highlighted his excellent performance and he can be hugely satisfied with his run, especially as he was not fully recovered from illness over Christmas.

Matt Burdus-Cook 9^th (32:41) continues in fine form and he led home the Masters team running very strongly. The measure of his improvement is that in the Masters race he moved from 32^nd last year to 9^Thand in the senior race from 106^th to 45^th.

Behind him was a hard-fought battle which ended with Tim Hutchinson 21^st (34.15) just getting the better of Neil Wickes 23^rd (34.29) after running close together for the whole race.

A solid run by John Raby 35^th (35.29) completed an excellent team performance that saw the team finish just outside the medals in 4^th position.

Behind them came the ever-dependable Malcolm Bowyer 50^th (37.20) closely followed by David Smyth 52^nd (37.37) Max Ross 53^rd (37.39) who were always together spurring each other on. Mike Sheppard 93^rd (41.42) and Phil Marshall 119^th (46.27) both enjoyed their runs as they brought a very successful afternoon for the club to a close.