WADAC ladies are Queens of Cross Country

The Ladies of WADAC had a stunning Hampshire League Cross Country Season having the best results in all three team age categories for many years.

The Vets ladies retained their Team Gold title winning 3 of the 4 races, with stunning performances by everyone. Vicky Gill won the vets ladies overall title, Kiralie Leigh-Jones 4th, Charlie Hoskins 5th, Sian Lewis 6th and Amy Howard 10th in V40 and Emma Carter 6th in V50.

Senior Ladies won a hard fought for and well-deserved Team Silver title with Annie Mann coming 3rd in league and Vicky Gill 4th. This is wonderful but the most impressive thing was the fantastic turn out at every race, fielding a squad that was full of amazing runners full of WADAC team spirit.

Junior Ladies fulfilled the potential they have shown in previous years fielding a full team for 3 of the 4 competitions. With fantastic competitors and team moral meant they won Team Silver. Annie Mann came 2nd Under 20 and Christina Wigley 4th.

Race 3 Hampshire Cross Country League in Reading

A cold but not quite frosty day at Reading which was welcome after the mud fest last week. The ladies fielded a soley vets team but they didn’t let us down coming 1st Vets team and 4th Overall ladies team.

Vicky Gill continued her storming season coming 5th over all and 1st Vet next was Kiralie Leigh-Jones with a fantastic finish 25th and 7th Vet, Jane Gandee completed the team in 27th 8th Vet (a stunning 1st V50). There was depth in the ladies vets with what would have been a second team with Charlie Hoskins 30th (9th vet)  Emma Carter 52 (20th Vet) Sue True 73th (31st Vet).

Due to numbers being depleted by injury and illness the men did well to field a good team who came 6th over all. Andy Greenleaf somehow makes it look effortless coming in 5th over all and 1st Vet packing well next were George King 12th and Ben Findlay 14th. Next in his stripey socks was Pete Sansome 63rd and 12th Vet and completing the team in a superb 105 was Rob Carter 38th Vet.

 Next and final race of the league is Bournemouth 10th February

Seniors in action at Popham

Charlie Hoskins’ report

It was perfect weather for once at Popham for Cross Country Race 2 of the season in the Hampshire League.

The ladies were out in force, quite literally led out by Vicky Gill who stormed off from the gun taking the field by surprise. She came home in an impressive 8th and 1st v40. Jasmine Gosse had yet another fantastic race coming 22nd and 7th under 20 as did Kiralie Leigh-Jones who came 34th and 9th Vet, a superb 5th team position. Vet ladies showed their strength again with Vicky 1st Kiralie 9th and Charlie 10th taking 1st team position ahead of Portsmouth. There was defiantly depth in the team this time with Jane, Sian, Emma, Susy, Rosie and Sue all coming in top half of the field.

As the temperature dropped it was time for the men to compete. Will Boutwood showed us he was carrying on from where he left off last season, coming 7th, he was followed by Andy Greenleaf 14th ( 2nd vet) then George King 17th and Ben Findlay 25th completing the team was Pete Sansome in 73rd (13th vet) making them 5th team in Division one and 3rd over all. The vets men team are also over all 1st equal so with Andy (2nd) Pete (13th) and Tim Smales (25th) giving the team 4th meaning everythings to play for over the next few matches.

Under 11s turnout in large numbers and perform well

Recently the under 11 girls and boys WADAC runners braved the elements as they took on the first Hampshire Cross Country match of the season, held in Aldershot. For many this was their first outing in the Wadac vest and gave them valuable experience of running in these competitive races which bring together school years 4, 5 and 6.

With the conditions consisting of patches of sun and rain, the runners were in for a challenge against the elements and their opponents. Despite it taking place at the back end of the school holidays, there were over 23 boys and 5 girls taking part in the races which was the largest team of any club.  

All the WADAC runners gave it 100 % and ran their best race in this course. The first three Home for the under 11 girls were Bella Webley (9th), Naomi Hurford-Potter (10th) and Isabella Hoskins (11th) who all achieved times under 7 minutes 30 seconds. For the under 11 boys were had four in the top ten namely Teodor Sledz (3rd) Hugo Halt (4th), Oliver Furby (5th) and Robyn Ashley (6th) all achieving times under 6 minutes 40 seconds.

Everyone put in good performance and the other results can be found here: https://www.hampshireathletics.org.uk/results/2023/20231028_hlunder11.html 

Overall, it was an incredibly strong team, with an excellent sporting attitude! A great effort to all the runners who participated in this race!

WADAC Seniors and Vets at Hampshire Cross Country League in Aldershot start the season strong

In the heavy Autumn showers the men and ladies of WADAC performed well in the first race of the Hampshire Cross Country League.

Small but mighty team of 6 ladies (2 under 20, 1 senior and 3 VETS) were led home by Jasmine Gosse in 27th ( 5th U20) followed by Kiralie Leigh -Jones in 35th ( 4th Vet) and Emma Carter completed the team in a superb 43rd (7th Vet and 2nd V50) giving them 7th team place. The Vetern ladies carried on where they left off at the end of last season taking 1st postion in VETS team - Kiralie4th, Emma 7th and Charlie Hoskins 13th (52nd). Sian Lewis had a strong finish coming in 53rd just behind Charlie and Kaela Nixon completed the pack in a brilliant 72nd (12th U20)

The Men were out in force fielding senior vet and U20 teams. Senior team came stunning Second team place behind a stacked Aldershot team. Andy Greenleaf stormed home in 6th (1st Vet) closely followed by Fred Slemeck 10th, next Adrian Faulty 15th who ran a great race building strongly at the end then George King 19th and Ben Finlay 20th completed the team. The Vet men had a brilliant race convincingly topping the leader board in 1st, Andy 1st Wayne Bevan (72nd), Pete Sansome 12th (91st). Under 20 team results have not been announced but we had Callum Lorimer 15th(46th) Thomas Evans 28th(82nd) Ben Chesterfield 33rd (99th). Many many more Winchester men battled the the torrential downpoors and new challenging course, speedy playing fields then slippy exciting muddy woodland trails.

Can’t wait for the next race in only 2 weeks at Popham.