It was a weekend of hills for all cross country runners this weekend with the Senior men and Young Athletes at Abingdon Park and Burton Dassett for the Senior Women. Our athletes rose to these tough challenges and continued to show their ability over difficult terrain.
The third Birmingham Cross Country League race for the senior men saw another Birchfield athlete coming home in first position. This time it was Omar Ahmed who finished two places in front of last month’s winner, Kadar Abdullahi. Next home was Alex Tovey in eighth place followed by Ed Banks in 24th Mike Tanner in 29th and Alex Jolley in 41st to give the scoring team a total of 106 points which put them second on the day behind Loughborough students. However, the team stills heads the table with 219 points 152 points ahead of the second team.
The B team are in second place in the B team competition. Jonathan Bradford (57), Andrew Peat (59), Orlando Corea (60), Jonathan Read (128), Lee Harris (157) and Peter Dimbleby (168) were the team scorers. Also running was U20 Silas Goshawk in 214th place. There were 261 runners overall.
Burton Dassett hills produced a course for the senior women, tough enough for the most fervent “it’s a proper xc course” addicts. Even so the same good young runners led the way home.
Prior to this race we were lying in 3rd place behind the two University teams but are being chased hard by Wolverhampton & Bilston and BRAT so there was all to play for although not where the University’s are concerned.
For the first time due to the popularity of the women’s league the two divisions were split and only Division 1 was racing so a field of 156 set off uphill to run two and a half laps. At the end of lap one from our point of view it was Jessie Lutwyche, straight off night shift, closely followed by Roanna Vickers making her debut run for us. Next came Carli Baldwin and Lizzie Watters, all four were scoring well.
The rest of the Stags followed led by Sarah Conway, then Frances Vickers, Emma Lines, Nicola Ross, Caitlin McMorrow and Sarah Capewell (Pallett). At the end of lap two there was much confusion as the paperwork said two laps but in fact it was two plus a short lap. Many of the athletes had already guven it everything they had and couldn’t continue. Despite this confusion our 1st scorer was Pte. Jessie Lutwyche in 9th place who came straight from one night shift and returned afterwards to another one. Second scorer was mum of two Carli Baldwin in 11th who never ceases to amaze.
Third for the team was Lance Corporal Roanna Vickers on her debut for finishing in 21st. Finally in fourth place and closing the scoring was Lizzie Watters in 24th. The Senior team finished 4th on the day which I believe will still keep us in 3rd. place overall.
Our other runners coped well with the terrain and errors. Sarah Conway was 33rd, Frances Vickers 39th, Emma Lines 74th, Nicola Ross 88th, U20 Caitlin McMorrow 104th and Sarah Capewell (Pallett) 123rd.
The masters team of Sarah Conway, Frances Vickers and Nicola Ross finished 5th.
Young Athletes
The last event of the weekend was the fourth West Midlands Young Athletes League again at Abingdon Park in Northampton.
First up were the U17 Women. With Ella Semple currently leading the league a win at this fixture would mean she would take the overall title. It was Another tight contest between her and rival Georgina Campbell but again Ella triumphed with a 12 second gap to take the win and the overall league. With teammates Ellen Taylor 5th and Savannah Causer in 14th the girls again finished in first on the day and retaining their overall lead in the team competition. Chloe Pettit also ran a strong race just one place behind a scoring position in 15th.
The U17 Men also had a good day. Despite the beginnings of a cold Ryan Shields secured his best place of the season coming home in second. Sam McFall followed his excellent run last week in the counties with a fifth place finish, closely followed by Daniel Swain who was only a second behind in sixth. Michael Gayle was 8th, Hugo Villalobos-Finnegan 11th, Jamie Cooper 12th, Alex Stapleton 14th, Nathan Casey 15th and Jarred Malcolm-Roberts 16th which shows the strength of our team in the age group. The team was the top team on the day and retail the number one spot overall but only by a margin of 22 points so it will be all to play for in the final race next month.
Our U15 boys are still missing some good athletes through injury but are fighting hard to stay in medal position. Josh Robins was back to his best with an emphatic win by 33 seconds a run which keeps him as the number one in this age group. Max Price was the second scorer in 19th followed by Alex Dickson 22nd, Isaac Searle 25th and Leo Merritt 39th. Close behind this was Daniel Hawes in 44th. The team was third and after four races are in third overall.
Our U15 girls continued their rivalry with Wolverhampton and Bilston. Emilie Bullock had her best race of the season finishing in second but only 10 seconds behind the winner. Lucy Semple was our next scorer in ninth. Amy Harland, back after a long spell out through injury, was 15th, Emmeline Grace 24th and finally Olivia Scott in 27th. The team was second on the day nine points behind Wolverhampton & Bilston. Also running were Anisa Hamilton 47thand Maya Whitehouse in 74th.
Our U13 boys have lost two boys through injury and as it was a small team this has impacted on our overall performance as for the second race running we have been unable to field a full team. However, Finnan Robins continued his good form with a third place finish once again but closer to the leaders than previously. Ash Burgess had another good run to finish eighth, Charlie Smith was 19th and Thomas Foster 73rd.
The U13 girls are running well. Amira Hamilton had another top ten finish coming home in eighth. Tulah Searle 15th, Till-Beau Tyson 37th, Lola Orton 38th and Belle Sidmore scored for the team which finished in fifth. Our other runners were Katie Collis (91st) and Ava McMorrow (106th).
The final age group in the league is U11 where we are beginning to build our teams and look to them for the future. We have a full U11 boys team, many of whom are in their first season of racing. Oliver Cresswell was 45th, Simeon Swain 48th, Jack Hendley-Smith 77th, Daniel Ryan 78th, Kristian Korbin 82nd, Matthew Sharpe 83rd and Henry Baker-Yearwood 90th. A total of 112 boys were in the race.
We are still lacking U11 girls despite trying to recruit from local schools, so did not have a full team. Lexie Robins, the youngest of the Robins family who run, mirrored the success of her older brothers with an race to finish in fourth. Cassie Pearson was next home in 34th, with Livia Casey 65th, and Tessa Burgess 78th.
The next race is 10 February at Wolverhampton.