Midlands Young Athletes XC Championships
Best ever results
Leamington 29th, January 2011
The Midland Champs took place at Newbold Common Park in Royal Leamington Spa and incorporated the famous ‘ditch’, which was a big crowd puller.
First to face this very testing course were the Under 13 boys, with over a hundred of the best young athletes in the Midlands it was a real elite start line. Leading the Club home was Elliot Moore in a really strong 11th place, closely followed by Kyran Wilson 15th, Hadyn Arnall 31st and Christopher Male 49th. This excellent performance gave the Under 13 boys Team second place overall and silver medals presented by the Mayor of Warwick.
The Under 20 men’s race saw lone athlete Luke Robinson produce a gutsy performance to finish 26th in a strong field.
In a very competitive field of 114 athletes the under 13 girls team, inspired by the success of the boys, knew they had to perform exceptionally well to emulate them. All of the team performed exceptionally well and were led home by the consistent Charlotte Murphy who came 18th. Two seconds behind was Natalie Goddard who came 20th, whom ran the majority of the race with one shoe on. The strength of the team was apparent with Ciara Moore and Kirsty Goddard also having great races finishing 28th and 30th respectively. Flora Courtney was the 5th member of the team home in 81st. The girls were delighted to find that their remarkable efforts were rewarded with a second place team award.
George Goodwin led the U15 boys team home having a superb run finishing 7th very closely followed by two consistent athletes, Jack Murphy in 10th and Tom Charteress in 12th. The fourth member of the team was Adam Wright in 61st, also finishing was Harry Taylor in 86th place. A great team performance secured the boys the silver medal, only missing out on the gold from Leicester Coritanians as both teams finished on the same points, therefore 4th team placings were the deciding factor.
In a tough fast race the under 15 girls did well to have the first four runners in the top 40 and were the 4th placed team. Genevieve Roberts was first home in 17th place, Bethan Goddard did well to finish in 28th place. Becky Pinto managed to dive through the ditch rather than jumping it, but was the next athlete home in 33rd. Mary Hughes was close behind in 35th. Alison Inwood (61), Isobel Hughes (66) and Emily Byrd (101) all put in their usual good efforts to ensure R&N had a strong presence in the race.
The Under 17 girls team was placed 8th amongst a competitive Midland field. First R&N girl home was Gabriella Moriarty 20th followed by Click Blake 42nd and third team member Megan Love finishing in 57th.
Without doubt the top individual performance of the day came from Emily Waugh in the Under 20 ladies race, being one of the youngest in the race in her first year as an U/20 she just missed out on an individual Bronze medal by 8 seconds, finishing a superb 4th. This effort was well supported by Emma McGowan finishing 25th.
The Under 17 mens team finished in 4th place just 2 points away from 3rd. The team was led home by Guy Marshman in 14th place with Joe Lantsbery finishing in 29th, closely chased by Jack Hall in 32nd and Conor Hills who was the 4th member of the team in 38th. The team was well supported by Robert Male in 72nd followed in by Jordan Simmons in 73rd place.
Power of 10 Results
