Hampshire XC Championships

Hampshire Cross Country Championships
nThe 2018 Hampshire Cross Country Championships took place for the third year running at Fairthorne Manor at Curdridge near Botley. Winchester & District Athletic club (WADAC) were there in strength and gained team and individual medals. The weather was seasonal cold with the conditions underfoot unsurprisingly muddy and slippy for those brave athletes taking part.
nThe very first race of the day was the Under 11 boys 2k event which was one lap of the Arena. James Lewis has been dominate in all the League matches this season and this was continued in these Championships. He led from the start and won comfortably 10 seconds in front of his nearest rival. WADAC won the team award in great style with Tom Grote running his normal consistent race in 4th with new boy Evan Jeremiah showing great potential in 5th and Stan Parkinson sprinting past two runners in the home straight for 6th position. WADAC B team was a fine 5th place with Harry Gaster 15th William Hasan 16th Michael Whitaker 24th Sam Wilkinson 26th. WADAC had great strength in depth in this age group with Timon Francis 28th Archie Chapman-Sheath 30th Finlay Paterson 31st and Haydn Moore 37th comprising the C team who were 8th overall. Other WADAC U11B finishers Jacob Hutchings 39th: Cameron Crorie 42nd: Teddy Creasey 44th: Joshua Cox 46th: Ethan Skipwith 47th: Jack Beswick 50th: Bradley Lewis 54th : Ewan John 58th : Ieuan Thomas 60TH: Edward Shergold 63rd: Thomas Hampson 68th: Ethan Imhofe 71st: Boaz Lurcock 73rd: Conor McErlean 75th; Jake Chapman 78th: Elliott Gurney 81st: Ivor Stannah 82nd: Aymeric Truchon 84th.
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nIn the next race the Under 11 girls 2k race Caitie Croft started off very fast and was with the leaders early on but unfortunately could not keep that pace but still finished a very respectable 18th. Just in front of Caitie after both starting steadier and moving through were Safiya Husain 15th and Rebecca Hutchings 16th had excellent runs and with Lucy Jones 22nd the U11G came up with a brilliant but unexpected third team medals. The packing of the WADAC girls meant that the B team were 4th overall through Summer Curtis 23rd, Poppy Taylor 24th, Scarlett Anderson 26th and Eva Akerman 27th and the C team 7th with Isla Bircham 28th: Elfye Richards 29th: Millie Morgan 30th and Maisie Curtis 36th. Other WADAC U11G performers- Ella Stout 41st: Bess Carter 43rd: Isla Hoult 44th: Layla Stannah 46th ; Izzy Hastie 48th: Freya Baker 49th:Jessica Dodd 53rd: Ella Ramage 54th.
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nRose Chesterfield won the first Hampshire league Under 13 girls match back in October and she continued this great form with a fine strong run to take 3rd place and bronze medal in the 3.3k race. Led by Rose WADAC Under 13 girls ran superbly as a team and finished silver team medallists just two points behind team winners Southampton. Amelia Moore continued her improvement with a gutsy run in 7th and with Ellie McErlean 9th and Millie Burgess 11th the girls were delighted to make the podium. Again the strength in depth of the club was shown by the B team placing 5th overall with Emma Shedden 21st, Aisling Hitchman 25th, Clemmie Rydon 27th and Jasmine Jones 29th. Other U13G WADAC positions- Lara Bassett 34th Phoebe McGee 43rd, Jemima Berry 45th, Izzy Stout 57th.
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n Inspired by his sister Rose’s great run in the Under 13 girls Ben Chesterfield had possibly his best run ever in the 3.3k Under 13 boys race leading WADAC home in 6th position showing great determination. He was backed up Harry Harvey who also ran really well to make the top 10 finishing in 9th place. Charlie Kyle 14th and Michael Shingleton-Smith 15th completed an excellent team performance which as rewarded with 2nd place team medals. Just like the WADAC U13G the U13B had lots of athletes taking part and the B team were 8th overall with Charlie Cox 22nd Ben Schofield 36th, Ben Yates 37th and Ben Hutchings 40th. The C team packed well and were 9th team with Charlie Hutchings 42nd, Matthew Duckering 45th, Alex Whittaker 48th and Conor Dutton 58th. Other U13B were Toby Pace 61st, Oscar Hoult 63rd, Matthias Truchon 70th.
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nThe WADAC Under 15 girls were quietly confident prior to their race that the team could get among the team medals and this was borne out with 2nd place team medals behind a very good Aldershot team. Pride of place goes to Sasha Tydeman who kept in touch with the leaders for most of the 4.3k course and finished a superb 4th place just 3 seconds behind 3rd. Aisling Dunne and Isabella Beck worked together tremendously and with strong finishes ended up 8th and 10th respectively. The scoring team was made up by Lily Neate in a creditable 14th. The B team of Hannah Foster 16th , Grace McKee 17th, Katie Nicholson 27th and Tamsin Hoult 31st were placed 6th team.
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nDoug Scally in the Under 15 boys 4.3k race ran his usual tenacious race and came in a fine 4th position just 4 seconds from winning in an individual medal . James Medley was next in for WADAC in a 12th position and with Sam Roberts 17th and Dominic Exworthy 26th they managed to gain noteworthy 3rd team medals .
nThis meant that in all six age groups from Under 11 up to Under 15 WADAC had won team medals in each category, a brilliant improved result from previous seasons.
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nIn the 5k Under 17 girls race WADAC just missed out on team medals in 4th position with the three scoring girls being Grace Mann 8th , Gabrielle Spelman 13th and Poppy Clements 15th. In the 6.1.k Under 17 mens race WADAC only had two competitors both acquitting themselves well with Ben Ringrose-Voase 16th and Toby Woods 26th. James Heneghan has been doing really well in Senior Men competitions this season but on this occasion he completed dominated the small but talented field in the 8.2 k Under 20 mens race to win by over one minute.
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nThe Senior and Veteran Women had to endure 8.4k including one medium and one full lap of the course. WADAC was led home admirably by three Veteran athletes, with Jo Meek and Kathy Bailey working together excellently to finish 5th and 6th and also giving Jo the first V40 Place and Kathy the V45 position. Not to be outdone Karen Rushton ran splendidly to take 13th and the First V50 position. Unsurprisingly WADAC won the Veteran Women team event with Sam Parkinson 27th overall completing the winning team. Just in front of Sam was Hannah Knapton in 25th and she competed the Senior Womens team along with Jo, Kathy and Karen who managed to secure fantastic 3rd team medals. Also making the top 50 in the race were Charlotte Hoskins 39th Sarah Lawson 40th and Emma Carter 43rd. Other WADAC performances were Ashia Fenwick 51st : Rosie Upton 62nd, Alison Fenwick 63rd and Madeline Vosser 75th.
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nIn the final race of the day the Senior & Veteran Men had to venture round 3 full laps totalling 11.7k. Always to the fore was George King and he came in a storming 5th place in a field of almost 200 finishers. WADAC did not strength in depth to back George up in the team race and were 9th team overall with good runs from Sam Appleton 69th , V45 Andy Parkinson 81st Simon Tarrant , V50 Marius Kwint 98TH (4TH V50 overall) and V55 Dave Vosser 104TH . Other WADAC positions- Ed Gurney 107th: Peat Allan 112th: Rob Carter 127th: Martyn West 144th (1st V65) Steve Goodwin 173rd.