West Midlands Young Athletes XC – Race 4
Biggest overall win to date
Nuneaton 16th January, 2011
The Rugby & Northampton AC junior XC squad headed to Nuneaton to compete in the fourth race of the five race West Midlands XC League series on a flat, fast, narrow course. Outstanding team performances in the previous races had already put the club at the top of the overall team table, but this outstanding bunch of junior athletes were not going to hold back and finished the day with their biggest overall win to date and all six teams in the medal positions going in the final race.
U11 Boys
Another fantastic result from the U11 boys who maintained their unbeaten run to win the fourth round at Pingles in Nuneaton.
It was a very competitive race with Josh Lay heading home the R&N boys and just missing out on a win to come in 2nd in a time of 6:55. Cameron Roberts (4th), Ewan Roberts (6th), Rhys Kelly (9th) and Thomas Haynes (13th) continued their consistent form to score points. Not far behind were Finn Hutton (15th), Mason Cole (17th), Jake Graham (18th) and Oliver Murphy (19th) who rounded up the top 20 with very impressive runs and showing great improvement over the season. Dylan Charles (26th), Jay O’Leary (27th), Matthew Bates (29th), Alexander Hill (34th), Cameron Samuels (39th), Ted O’Leary (40th), Harvey Dickerson (43rd) and Charlie McGowen (44th) all demonstrated the depth of talent within the club by finishing in the top half of the field. Niall Martin (77th) completed the lap in a creditable time of 9:26 and a fantastic debut run from Cian Hutton to bring the team home.
U11 Girls
The team had a great day to take the lead again by 2 points over rivals Birchfield Harriers with supreme efforts by all. Georgia Willix again led the team home in 5th place holding on to her position of 4th over the whole series, followed by Georgina Mitchell in 11th place improving on the last race by 15 positions. Next home again in 20th was Poppy Carmichael with Millie Mason next in 24th improving on her last position by 13 places Olivia White completed the points scorers finishing in 34th place. These 5 were brilliantly supported by Olivia Lodge (47th) in her 1st race for the club, probably the youngest athlete in the field only 9 in January, Abi Carter followed in 52nd, closely chased by Megan Hughes (58th). Katie Woods fought for 78th place and Charlotte Valentine again showed her determination to finish in 98th place with Niamh Chippington chasing hard in 113rd place. A real good team effort and setting the stage for a showdown with Birchfield in the final race at their home ground at Perry Park, Birmingham on Sunday 6th March.
U13 Boys
Ben Musgrove was first runner home for the U13 boys team in 6th place displaying the sprint finish of the day and he is in 8th place overall in the competition. He was well backed up by Kyran Wilson in 14th, Haydn Arnall in 15th and Chris Male in 19th, with Joe Childs making up the scoring places in 67th. Also competing were team regulars Phillip Kempson in 70th and Rhys Dickerson in 76th, which keeps the boys team in 3rd place.
U13 Girls
The team put in their best performance so far to extend their lead in the competition with 1 race to go. Having 6 athletes in the top 20 showed their strength and depth. First runner home was the consistent Natalie Goddard (8th), close behind was Ciara Moore (11th) and Charlotte Murphy (13th), Constantia Liburd (14th) and Kirsty Goddard (15th). Emily Cutler was the other athlete in the top 20 in 18th place. Lily Carmichael ran well in 26th place as did Ella Machin-Brady in 33rd. There were some spirited performances by the rest of the team with Ella Bromley in 44th, Flora Courtney in 62nd, Libby Lea 70th, young Eva Spellman 79th and Charlotte Lodge 99th.
U15 Boys
A fantastic all-round performance by the U15 boys on a flat, windy course at Nuneaton saw them close the gap to 20 points behind the overall team leaders, and put them in with a chance of the gold medal at the final race in March. Jack Murphy produced one of the best runs in the history of Rugby & Northampton ACs participation in this league when he managed to overhaul the leader in the closing stages to win - for a runner who still has another year to run in this age group, this was an outstanding achievement. Excellent runs again from Tom Charteress and George Goodwin, who finished 4th and 5th respectively, kept them both in the top 6 overall; Billy Bowman-Shaw (16th) and Adam Wright (19th) provided very good support, meaning the five scoring runners finished in the top 20, a notable feat. Teams are about everyone who takes part and Harry Hughes (27th), Harry Tayor (46th), Jack Bramley(48th), Michael Kinder ( 49th) all played their part in a memorable team effort.
U15G
They had the largest girls team turn out with 14 athletes lining up to start and they turned on the heat in the battle to try to take the top team spot and are now only 2 points behind Halesowen going into the last race. Genevieve Roberts ran her best race this season to finish in the top ten (6th) for the first time and was followed home by Becky Pinto (13th) who has run consistently well across the series of races. Bethan Goddard was the third team member home in 16th for the third time running and Alison Inwood another best performance to date improving up to 22nd with back in form Katie Clubb finishing in 26th. The team finished strongly Isobel Hughes (40th), Megan Exley (45th), Mary Hughes (46th), Tilly Lea produced her highest position to date (52nd) Maddie Spellman (56th), Emily Byrd her top finish so far this season(63rd) Katie Williamson (65th), Phinolla Hindle (79th), Emily Valentine (80th)
U17M
The men notched up their second team win of the season with the first three athletes finishing in the top ten. Sam Turnell was outstanding running a strong race to secure his first top ten finish (6th) Jacob Allen ran well on the back of a hard won victory the previous day to finish 8th Jack Hall finished 9th again for the third race running and Robert Male equaled his race series best in 15th
U17W
The ladies maintained their 3rd place in the team event with good runs by them all. Sarah Bennett led the team home again to finish in 3rd place. Charlotte Inwood ran hard to take 13th and Lauren Byrd improved again to finish 21st.
Power of 10 Results
