Witton Country Park, Blackburn, is one of the toughest cross-country courses on the circuit, and it certainly lived up to its reputation this year: treacherous underfoot conditions and repeated hailstorms meant that anyone completing the course was a real hero / heroine.
Twelve of our intrepid juniors took part and there were some wonderful performances, though all of them showed great courage and determination.
The first race of the day was the U17 Women, the only group, other than the Senior Men, that had to tackle the infamous teaspoon. Vicki Merrick, struggling with a painful back, did very well to finish in 76th position.
The next two races were for the U15s: Reuben Mantle ran splendidly to finish 28th in the Boys race, while Eliza Findlay, Katie Smith and Lucy Miller had to brave one of the worst hailstorms to finish in 45th, 103rd, and 116th positions respectively – a great effort once again.
Sarah Dewhirst, who has done so well in senior races this year, showed how much progress she has made with a fine run in the U20 Women’s race: her 34th position was an improvement of 20 places on last year!
I know that Ruby Firth was a little disappointed with her run in the Yorkshire Championships, but she certainly made up for it in this U13 race : her 20th position, the best Bingley run of the day, showed her real strength and fighting qualities.
Not far behind in terms of achievement were the U13 Boys, who all performed wonderfully well to finish in 18th team position, and three of them will be in the same age-group next year. Alex Flaherty led the way in 24th position, Joseph Carnelley was 98th, Ben Rees 165th and Samuel Mantle 175th.
I would like to congratulate all those who ran and thank all those who supported us throughout the afternoon – now for The National!
Tony Kingham