Hampshire Cross Country League Match 3
Popham Airfield was the venue of the third Hampshire Cross Country League fixture of the season. Winchester & District Athletic Club (WADAC) had athletes taking part in all age groups. The conditions underfoot were reasonably dry compared to previous years for this fixture; however the wind was bitingly cold.
nWADAC ladies Cross Country team manager Melanie Wilkins did much more than lead by example as she won the 6K Senior/Vet Womens race in great style, a dominant 25 seconds in front of the runner up. Also inspired was Simone Dailey who claimed 3rd position with a superb strong effort. In 7th position was Jo Meek, who claimed the first Vets place and also closed in the WADAC team for a magnificent victory in the team event and are also first team overall on aggregate.. The WADAC womens Vets team also won their category with the improving Sam Parkinson 32nd and club stalwart Karen Hazlitt 38th being the scorers along with Jo Meek. Other WADAC senior/vet women results- Charlotte Hoskins 50th: Emma Carter 54th : Jo Jefferies 60th : Madeline Vosser 95th.
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nIn the Under 13 girls race Rose Chesterfield had a steady run for 5th position to lead WADAC to 2nd in the team event behind Aldershot, the same place they hold overall. Finishing in exactly the same time were Millie Burgess 10th and Amelia Moore 11th to complete the scoring team. Ellie McErlean 19th and Aisling Hitchman 20th both had good runs to make the top 20. Other WADAC- Emma Shedden 24th : Elveza Mulder 41st : Lucy Jones 51st : Phoebe McGee 56th.
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nGabrielle Spelman was first home for WADAC in the Under 17 womens race in 18th with team-mates Emily Coulson 25th and Natasha Miles 26th completing the team which were 5th on the day.
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nOnce again Hannah Foster was the first home for WADAC in the Under 15 girls race claiming 16th with Isabella Beck 22nd and Lily Neate 23rd backing her up to help the team finish 4th on the day. Katie Nicholson was 42nd for WADAC.
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nIn the Senior/Vet mens race over a distance of 10k it was an under 20 athlete that led the way for WADAC, Keir Sullivan had a really strong run finishing 32nd out of the 230 runners competing the course, this gave Keir 8th U2M position . Next home for WADAC was Tim Smales improving from 88th in the previous match to a very credible 45th position. Richard Parr was 57th to be third scorer. Completing the WADAC scoring team were Sam Appleton 74th and Wayne Bevan 76th, who was first Vet home for WADAC .The senior team were 6th again in Division 1 with the Vets team 8th in their team event with Marius Kwint 103rd and Mike Chambers 115th joining Bevan in the team. Other WADAC runners- Franklyn Young 117th : Peat Allan 132nd ; Dave Vosser 143rd : Steve Oliver 153rd ; Steve Lowy 176th.
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nIn the first two league fixtures the WADAC Under 15 boys had come 2nd and 3rd in the team events. Unfortunately this time they were without most of their U15B runners. The only finisher was James Medley in an excellent 11th position. Hopefully for Match 4 WADC can field a scoring team in the U15B race.
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nJames Lewis stepped up from the Under 11 age group to run in the Under 13 boys race and had a first class performance to come home 6th and he was followed home by Tom Grote 13th and Thomas Briggs 14th. The team finished a fine 3rd position in the team event the same place they are overall. Other WADAC runners were Michael Shingleton-Smith 18th ; Harry Harvey 22nd : Ben Chesterfield 25th : Stan Parkinson 42nd : James Salter 47th ; Matthew Duckering 48th ; Ben Hutchings 52nd ; Ieuan Thomas 64th .
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nThere are two more matches in the League series to be held at Reading and Aldershot in the New Year.