U11s and u13s flood the Hampshire Champs races

The good news was that the weather was significantly better than last year’s meet - no rain, no hail and a relatively warm and sunny day for early January. The downside was the ground was extremely wet underfoot - boggy and waterlogged in parts, which meant that every step was harder than usual.

First out were the U11 boys (46 competitors) which was a change as the U11 girls invariably commence cross-country events. WADAC had a strong and significant line-up of 23 which boded well for medals. We were not disappointed and the U11 boys were simply fantastic, taking the silver and bronze individual positions (Hugo Holt 08.02, and Oliver Furby 08.04 respectively) Hugo coming in only 6 seconds behind the first place runner. The U11 boys teams also secured the gold team award (Hugo Holt, Oliver Furby, Robin Ashley and Hugo Fox) and the bronze team award (Oliver Isaia, Thomas Jepson, Alex Olestenko and Seth Howard). The remaining boys all finished strongly and were a credit to WADAC. 

Next were the U11 girls in a field of 32. A smaller but well formed team of 10 who as usual engaged in some pre-match banter. The girls would say that the course had been churned up by the boys and this affected their performance! They all did extremely well only missing out on a bronze medal (Naomi Hurford-Potter 4th, 08.41) and the bronze team award (missing it by 2 points).  Positions were Bethany Underwood 13th, Bella Webley 15th, Felicity Knibb 16th, Imogen Campbell 17th, Izzy Goulding 19th, Vivi Sell 28th, Evie Churcher 29th, Evelyn Boyd 30th and Holly Crowther 31st. They showed lots of promise for the future.

U13 boys were next with a field of 54, of which 12 were WADAC. The first home for WADAC was Luke Furby (4th) just missing out emulating his brother. This proved to be a very strong field and the next WADAC runner was Felix Sclater in 15th place followed by Frazer Noble 22nd, Jack Sansome 26th, Theo Reeves 42nd, Leo Davies-Pratt 43rd, Cooper Cripps 44th, Benjamin Boyd 45th, Joseph Jepson 47th, Theo Crampin 48th, Christopher Wood 49th and Thomas McLeish 52nd. WADAC’s first team came in 5th place. There is lots of promise for future success.

Next were the U13 girls who delivered an impressive performance. First home was Dana Butlers 6th, immediately followed by Amber Price 7th, Millie Honan 10th and Aoife Uniacke 12th giving WADAC first place in the U13 Team award. Other places were Evie Smith 21st, Patrycja Sopylo 25th, Gwyneth Hunter 26th, Amelia Underwood 27th, Natalia Sopylo 31st and Arabella Byrne 37th.

Thanks to Jonathan Hurford Potter for the report