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Northern Cross Country Championships 2017

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Knowsley Safari Park has become one of the top cross country venues in the North of England and, although the weather was relatively kind to us this year, conditions underfoot were atrocious.

Twelve of our intrepid juniors took part and there were some splendid performances, with all of them showing great courage and determination.

The first race of the day was the U17 Women: Vicki Merrick and Katie Smith battled away and were never very far from each other, with Vicki just prevailing in 90th place and Katie one place further back.

In the U13 Girls, Holly Walters, for whom this was only her 4th race in Bingley colours, and running without a team-mate, showed how much progress she has made, finishing 215th in a large field.

Next came the U17 Men – both our runners were in their first year in this tough age-group and both performed extremely well, with Reuben Mantle in a fine 36th place, and Josh Spencer in his best race to date, battling through to 136th.

Throughout the season our U13 Boys have been our strongest team and so it proved once again: their 17th place was a fine effort in this prestigious event. Individually, Alex Flaherty had a wonderful run in 5th place, beating the Yorkshire champion in the process, and he was ably supported by Ben Rees in 101st, Jake Wallace in 112th and Samuel Mantle in 163rd.

The next two races were for the U15s. For the boys, Joseph Carnelley, who, unfortunately, always seems to be without a team-mate, ran a brave race to finish 139th. For the girls, Ruby Firth, who seems to save her best for the Northerns, had a fine run to finish 37th, while Emily Field, who had been off running for several weeks, showed real fighting spirit to come 53rd – welcome back Emily!

On a personal note, I would like to thank Graham Smith and David Potter for their continuing help and support, to congratulate all those who ran, and thank all those who supported us throughout the afternoon – now for The National!

 

Tony Kingham