Senior Men
The Birchfield senior men's cross country team started the defence of their Birmingham & District Invitational Cross Country League title with a convincing win at round one in Coventry on Saturday 9 November 2019.
Following the recent heavy rain, permission to use the intended course at Malvern Common was withdrawn on Wednesday afternoon, leaving the League officials working overtime to rearrange the fixture with 48 hours notice. A replacement course was found at Coundon Park, Coventry, and the essential paperwork and organisation completed to ensure the race went ahead.
Fresh from his 28:37 10k clocking at Leeds two weeks ago, Omar Ahmed ran the only way he knows how and pushed the pace from the gun, with Will Richardson the only athlete willing or able to match the tempo. The Birchfield pair ran shoulder to shoulder until the final few metres of the flat, muddy course, with Will moving ahead to take his first Birmingham League victory, by 2 seconds from Omar, with the next athlete nearly a minute further back.
Tom Beasley had been disappointed with his race at Mansfield last Saturday, but returned to form over this week's longer distance, running strongly in the second half to finish in sixth place. Ed Banks made it four Stags in the top ten, with Mike Tanner and Jonny Goringe finishing 15th and 16th to complete the A team.
Jon Bradford must have scored one of the best ever positions for a B team runner with his 17th place, and he was joined in completing the B team by Max Walk (35th), Abraham Ahforom (44th) Orlando Corea (53rd), Andy Ridley (58th) and Ben Griffiths (73rd).
The scoring teams' performances were backed up by Daniel Swain (77), Conall Green (110), Matt Biggs (138), Mike Morley (172) and Simon Rhodes (198), and it is reassuring to have so many runners who could have scored in the A or B teams on any other day.
The importance of the "named official" - a volunteer provided by all clubs to assist in the smooth running of the event - was highlighted by the imposition of a 200-point penalty on the University of Birmingham team for failing to perform their duties correctly, so we can all thank new club recruit Mitchell Abrams for filling the official role for us at this round.
Round two is at Stoke on Trent on Saturday 7 December.
Andy Peat, Team Manager
Senior Women
This first race was a test for the athlettes as the course is on a hill some 700 feet above the Worcestershire countryside. As such this course is hilly and has a masochistic fascination with cross-country aficionados and it is easy to see why as if you’re not running downhill you are certainly running up one.
The weather was not on our side as it rained or poured the whole time we were there. The team for the day assembled some in better time than othersbut had a full team out.Around 220 starters set off up a steep rise and disappeared from view, eventually appearing before the end of the first lap of the two-lap course with Amelia Quirk, running for Bham University, well in the lead as you would expectfrom a top class international runner. However, Bryony Gunn, who is the backbone of our team and has been for a while, was in the next group and running strongly followed by Kelly Butler who is making a big difference to the team performances. Next was Ejiro Okoro making a welcome return to cross-country. Lizzie Watters was not far behind and she was followed by Sarah Conway, Frances Vickers Carli Baldwin and Nicola Ross.On the final run in it was Bryony Gunn finishing 7th. Kelly Butler who decided to hit the turf a couple of times finishing 13 in muddy disarray.Making a light of the awful conditions Ejiro Okoro glided in to 21st. Carli Baldwin found it the steepness and slippery conditions a bit daunting but made her way through the field and finished 26th to close the scoring.Francis Vickers has a long standing cold but still finished 27th. Lizzie Watters got bad stitch and finished 34th. Finally, Sarah Conway was 63rd and Nicola Ross 72nd.Sadly our one other competitor Caitlin McMorrow fell and sprained her ankle causing her to DNFThe senior team finished 3rd just 9 points behind BRAT but worryingly only 2 points in front of Wolverhampton & Bilston so it’s going to be a tough season.The masters team of Francis Vickers, Sarah Conway and Nicola Ross.Eddie Cockayne, Team Manager