On Saturday 24th February a large number of CoNAC athletes, from all age groups, travelled by team buses to a sunny but cold Parliament Hills (Hampstead Heath) in London for the English National Cross Country Championship.
The first race off saw the u17 women tackling this challenging Cross Country course with its never ending undulations as the ground began softening in the rising winter sun. Experienced athlete Katie Goldsmith led the CoNAC athletes throughout, finishing in 53rd position, with team mates Rachel Bruce 113th and Sophie Peach rounding off the finishers in 203rd.
Next up were the u15b, who unfortunately suffered late withdrawals, due to illness. Danny Adams was quick off the line to lead the CoNAC team throughout the race, finishing with a fine 136th position as a first year athlete, Zak Houghton continued to show progress, finishing 216th, followed by Will Browne 254th, with the final scorer for the team (Isaac Bower) finishing 434rd of 504 finishers.
The u13g were next to the start, for many it was the first time competing at a prestigious event, in such a grand setting and you could see the nerves starting to show as the start time loomed. Just to help settle their nerves, the race announcer boomed out over the tannoy that this was the largest entry since the mid 1970s!
In fact, there were 467 finishers in the u13g race, representing some 51 clubs from across England.
The young CoNAC athletes needn’t have worried though, as the team finished in a fantastic 5th place, with great performances from Tia- Lilly Crane in 28th place, followed by Alice Daniels, Eleanor Phillips and Madison Kelly in 44th , 50th and 66th positions respectively. There were also very respectable runs for Esme Abbott 84th, a returning from illness, Memphis Symonds 123rd, Grace Daniels 136th, Madelene Bacon 146th, Georgia Pegg 157, Isabella Williams 302nd and Olivia Sargeant 418th.
An injury and illness struck u17m team started, with the course softening further. Will Mahoney once again started fast leading the CoNAC runners throughout, finishing in a fine 22nd place. Close behind was training partner, Jack White in 29th, with Jamie Stares 86th, Will Simm 107th, Jacob Stares 142nd and a recovering from injury, Rhys Foyster 256th and Ben Thorpe 341st of the 356 finishers, placing the team 7th of 36 teams.
The u13b followed with a fast starting Jeya Kandola leading the CoNAC athletes up the first hill. Jeya maintained his form throughout to finish in a fine 33rd position. Toby Nelson returned from illness, to finish 145th, with training partner and first year athlete, Connor Gowing 225th, followed by race long competitors Jack Abram and Dylan White finishing in 300th and 302nd position of the 570 finishers.
CoNAC’s u15g team arrived to defend their 2016 and 2017 National Cross Country Championship wins. Kate Willis led the team through the early party of the race, within or close to the top 10. Using her experience, Kate maintained her position and finished strongly to take a well-deserved 11th position. Close behind was relative newcomer, Megan Gadsby, who ran within sight of Kate throughout, finishing with a fantastic 16th position. First year athletes, Madeleine Short produced another fine race to take 44th position, with a gritty run from Grace Jermy, defying her recent illness, with an amazing 82nd place to round off the team.
Emma Ledward battled throughout to take a fine 266th place amongst the 464 finishers. To everyone’s delight, the CoNAC u15g retained the National Cross Country Team Championship for the 3rd successive year.
The smaller Junior Women’s field were next to run, with Millie Solway continuing to make progress in this age group, finishing 41st, followed by Lauren Howe 84th, with Amy Clarke rounding off the team scorers in 104th to take 11th position as a team.
The Junior Men followed with Ben Spratling completing the demanding course in 82nd place, followed by Jack Adcock 116th and Mark Chaney-Baxter 158th of the 220 finishers.
In a highly anticipated Senior Women’s race, CoNAC’s Commonwealth Games bound Iona Lake settled in with the lead group with team mate Sarah Astin in close support. Iona produced the best individual CoNAC performance of the day, to take a well-deserved bronze medal.
Sarah moved through the field to finish with a top 10 position in 9th, with Mabel Becket producing one her best performances to date to take 44th place, Marieke Vermue in 390th and Ellie Stevens in 476th of the 1113 athletes who completed the course. The team took 14th place amongst 112 teams who completed the course.
With the course at its softest and well churned up by the proceeding races, the Senior Men rounded off the events. Ashley Harrell produced another great run, confirming his growing reputation, to finish 24th, George Gay ran well to take 317th, with team mates Gary Crush 372nd, Jonny Quint 397th, Sam Todd 478th and Thomas Barker 923rd, Mark Solway 1291st and Jonathan Baxter 1349th of the 2328 finishers.
As always, the athletes wish to thank team manager Peter Mahoney for his tireless work in arranging everything, not forgetting all who helped make this such an enjoyable championships for all the CoNAC athletes and supporters. Once again, a fine team effort.
[Thanks to David Pring and Simon Eisenmann for the race reports]