Birmingham Cross Challenege, 25 October 2008
Busy day for all age groups at Senneleys Park
The Cross Country season got off to it's traditional start on Saturday with the Birmingham Cross Challenge at Senneleys Park, incorporating both the Birmingham League for the men and the Midland women's League, each at the start of their four race league season.
Each race comprised several laps of the undulating parkland course and included the infamous stream crossing, although after the recent drier spell meant that underfoot conditions were ideal.
Mens Race - Division 1
The men's team built upon last year's success to finish in an encouraging 8th place including clear victories over last year's rivals Cheltenham & Halesowen. The team were led home by Stephen Emery who is now studying at Loughborough University. He always featured amongst the Top 25 and despite tiring on the final hills still made steday progress through the field and finally finished in 18th place for his highest ever league placing, as well as laying down a marker for future University fixtures. Second home was Nigel Marley who also recorded his best ever league finish as is used his strength to good effect on the hills as he secured 37th place just over a minute behind Emery. He was chased home by John Gercs who was also at home in the conditions as he dipped into the Top 50 to take 47th place. Fourth scorer was Stuart Nelson who was feeling th effects of a recent half marathon but still made progress on every lap to finish in 62nd place. Liam Ratcliffe was making his league debut and hadnt run Cross-Country for nearly two years, but after a fast start settled in to run a solid race and claim an excellent 75th place and fifth scoring position. The final scorer was in-form Ed Hill who travelled over from Warwick University and finished in 83rd place.
The team were well supported by the B team led by Chris Lamb and Brendan Moen, whilst Mark Armstrong looked good in his first league outing whilst Chip Causebrook made a welcome return after a long spell battling with injuries.
18 Stephen Emery 33-37
37 Nigel Marley 34-50
47 John Gercs 35-07
62 Stuart Nelson 35-47
75 Liam Ratcliffe 36-06
83 Ed Hill 36-24
122 Chris Lamb 37-49
124 Brendan Moen 38-00
133 Mark Armstrong 38-18
143 Chip Causebrook 38-57
159 Josh Cardwell 40-12
163 Paul White 40-28
172 John Saw 41-04
173 Nigel Sewell 41-12
192 Adrian White 43-32
Ladies Race
The ladies team comprised mainly veterans and they were led home by 'super-vet' Angela Copson who finished 51st. Angela was using the race as preparation to represent England in the Home Counties masters international in Swansea on November 15th. She was followed home by Madeleine Smith who made the journey from Windsor in order to compete, with the scoring team of 3 being completed by Sharon Fearn.
51 Angela Copson 27-46
81 Madeleine Smith 29-41
88 Sharon Fearn 30-02
102 Kate Lundy 31-01
115 Kate Williams 31-34
138 Ann Rollings 33-05
The Club’s junior athletes braved the challenging Senneleys Park course to produce the best ever individual performances in this event.
The U17 men were first off on a wind chilled Saturday morning over a 5km course. Rory Grant produced a strong sprint finish in his first race of the season to finish 5th just ahead of Luke Robinson in 6th with George Cardwell completing the trio in 8th place.
The U17 women, all in their first year of competition in this age group showed their endurance strength over 4km. Emily Waugh continued her good start to the season to finish in an impressive 3rd place with good runs also by Briony Banks 8th and the ever improving Chelsea Thompson 10th.
Charlotte Inwood ran a strong race just missing out on 2nd place to finish 3rd in the U15 girls beating some strong opposition in the process. Gabriella Moriaty 17th, Lauren Byrd 19th and Eleanor Barnes 25th all showed they are growing in confidence with each race.
The U15 boys represented by Robert Male & Ben Jennings, returning to fitness, battled around the 3km course to finish 21st & 22nd respectively.
Rhys Borwick and Declan Moen found the competition tough but stuck with it to finish in 17th & 18th place respectively in the U13 boys race with Emma Blackwood (15th) and Emily Byrd (16th) showing determination in the U13 girls race over 2.5km.
The U11 girls gave their all in a small but quality field with Phoebe Ellis 5th & Melissa Boulter 6th.
The closest finish of the day was in the U11 boys with only 9 seconds between 2nd and 8th place. Harry Dominy took the prize as the top finishing junior athlete refusing to be beaten on the run and his reward was 2nd place. Christopher Male ran well to finish in 12th position.
