WCAA Cross-Country Champs - Young Athletes Report
Emily claims club's first County Title for over 10 Years
Rugby & Northampton Junior athletes braved artic conditions to compete in the Warwickshire County Cross Country Championships at Cofton Park, Birmingham on Saturday 10th January.
With frozen ground, fog, bracing winds in the exposed area and temperatures well below freezing all day, the athletes faced a course that looked picturesque but proved to be challenging and demanding – even the ever merry band of spectators found themselves running around in a vain attempt to keen warm!
Under 13
Racing over the longer than usual distance of 3000m, the U13 girls remains the most competitive age group and the Rugby girls did their best in the conditions with new comer Mary Hughes leading the team home in 26th place with a gutsy run. Reagen Traynor & Flora Courtney stepped up from U11’s to compete in the much tougher older age group in order to complete the team and finished in 40th & 41st place.
The ever keen and competitive U13 boys delivered the best team performance of the day for the juniors taking home a well deserved bronze medal. With only 6 seconds separating 3rd to 7th place the final stages of the race were closely contested. George Goodwin, who only started training for XC recently and improving with every race was the lead Rugby runner home in 7th place and was backed up by Adam Wright, returning after injury to finish in an impressive 16th place and another newcomer Harry Hughes put in a fantastic effort to finish 20th.
Under 15
With no U15 girls competing and athlete injuries, Ben Jennings found himself the only U15 on the start line of what could have been a polar expedition given the conditions, but he held his own in a strong field over 4000m to finish an admirable 20th place.
Under 17
The performance of the day came from the in form Emily Waugh in the U17 women’s race who stormed around the 5000m course to become the first Warwickshire XC County Champion for the club for over 10 years. As the youngest runner in the race and another year to compete at this age group, Emily will be back to defend her title next year.
Tom Collins was the lone competitor from Rugby in the U17 mens race and wishing he had stuck to swimming in a warm pool instead of taking up cross country ran well over 3 laps to finish the 6000m course in 16th place.
Under 20 No U20 women competing, Andrew Brown found himself another lone competitor in the U20 mens race in his first race of the season and ran well over 6000m in a high class field to finish in 9th place.
Congratulations to all the athletes who travelled and took part in freezing conditions and a big thank you to all the supporters who kept spirits high during the day.
