WADAC juniors make winning start to new Hampshire League XC season

The new Hampshire Cross Country League season began with a bang for Winchester’s juniors, as they recorded the club’s best-ever results. Fielding a grand total of 63 young athletes, across eight age & gender race categories, WADAC’s teams finished with four first places, three seconds and one third, a marvellous achievement. There were also individual race victories for two of our juniors, as well as three other top three finishes and numerous others in the top ten.
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nThe tone for the day was set in the Under-11 races, where 28 runners, including many new faces making their club debuts, donned the black and gold. In the opener, Luke Furby backed up his consistent training form by leading from gun to tape to take the win, and was backed up by Samuel Richardson (4th) and Felix Sclater (6th), for the winning team, with Eddie Clegg (7th) and Tom Pate (9th) making it a fabulous five in the top ten. Ben Phillips (16th) headed up the remainder of a very strong WADAC team (full results listings available in the link below).
nIn the girls’ race that followed, Amber Price (8th) was WADAC’s first athlete home, and the scoring team was completed by Pippa Russell (14th) and Cecily Nolan (17th), which, in a very open field, was good enough for second best team score of the day. There were good debut runs also from Jasmine Kaiser (19th), Isla Hunt (22nd) and Arabella Pollock (27th).
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nThe Under-13 girls’ race was a competitive affair at the front of the pack, with WADAC’s scoring team of Poppy Taylor (4th), Kate Atkinson (5th) and Grace Baker (8th) grouping well to take an impressive team win with a little to spare. Alexandra Dickinson on debut signalled her potential with 13th place, followed by younger-year runners Ellie Jepson (29th) and Elodie Gill (37th).
nIn the U13 boys’ race, Ethan Skipwith and Casper Wilson stormed along at the head of the field from the off, to take 1st and 2nd places, and with Seth Noott (6th) completing the scoring team, it was a comprehensive WADAC win. Ollie Corrie underlined his recent form with 8th place, and with Joe Hasan (11th), Oliver Foden (16th), Tom Savill (17th) and Daniel Cooper (26th), this was an impressive show of strength from a very promising WADAC age-group.
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nIndividual Winchester performance of the day came in the girls’ U15 race, where Darcy Hawkins belied her status as the youngest of the younger-year runners to lead out from the start. Passed with about 800m to go, Darcy fought back to within a second of the winner at the finish line, recording a time faster than all but two of the runners in the U17 Women’s race that followed later. Strong performances in the second half of the race from Cecily Wilson (20th) and Amelie Gill (21st) saw Winchester grab the placings that they needed to edge into 3rd placed team spot by a single point. A great debut run from Isla McAulay (33rd) completed a WADAC line-up that was decimated on the day by Covid-related and fixture-clash absentees. So a very welcome podium-place, all things considered.
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nPerhaps the strongest field of the day was in the U15 boys’ event, with multiple Hampshire representative athletes competing for a variety of clubs. So it was a bold move on the part of WADAC’s Will Atkins to lead out the field over the first half of the race. Though passed later and finishing 4th, this was a clear indication of how far Will has come in recent months, and with the ever-reliable James Lewis (6th) building back to form, and Ruben Price (14th), on his return from illness, this is a team and a category that will be great viewing over the course of the season. Winchester’s strength in depth was underlined by Ieuan Thomas (22nd), Will Hasan (23rd), Aiden Furby (24th), Stan Parkinson (32nd), Sam Wilkinson (33rd) and Will Dickinson (45th).
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nAs U15s in the 2019-20 season, Rose Chesterfield and Amelia Moore took up permanent residence in the top five places in Hampshire League races. Clearly this was a habit that a change in age-group and an 18 month lay-off hadn’t broken, as Rose (3rd) and Amelia (4th), formed their long-standing trio with Ellie McErlean (14th), to record yet another team victory in their names.
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nThe Winchester U17 boys so nearly replicated the team win, coming second by a single point to winners COPAC. Harry Wilson (4th), Ben Chesterfield (9th) and Harry Harvey (15th) were the scoring team, joined by Ben Schofield (28th), in a category that seems certain to become more and more competitive as the season goes on.
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nSo a very promising day indeed from a Winchester perspective, and the key to maximising chances of end of season bling will be ensuring a similarly huge turnout at Aldershot in three weeks’ time, on Dec 4th.
nLinks to results on the Hampshire Athletics website :U11s : Hampshire Athletics - Hampshire Cross-Country League - 13 November 2021 - Under 11U13, U15 & U17 girls : Hampshire Athletics - Hampshire Cross-Country League - 13 November 2021 - GirlsU13, U15 & U17 boys : Hampshire Athletics - Hampshire Cross-Country League - 13 November 2021 - Boys