A large contingent of junior and senior CoNAC athletes (together with supporters) headed for Stanmer Park, Brighton, on Saturday 27th January, after an overnight stop in Crawley on Friday evening.
A dry but cool day greeted the athletes, with the u15b taking to the course first.
First year athlete, Danny Adams lead the team throughout the race finishing in a creditable 56th position, closely followed by an improving Zak Houghton in 76th and James Atkin returning to some form in 85th with final scorer for the team, Eduardo Foglia-Pearshouse finishing 187th Rounding off the u15b finishers were Will Browne 196th and Josh Knights 205th.
The second race saw the largest entry of CoNAC athletes of the day in the u13g’s event.
Tia-Lily Crane produced a fine run, in taking 18th position, with training partners Eleanor Phillips 27th, Esme Abbott 29th and Alice Daniels 50th rounding off the scoring team, who clinched a well deserved bronze medal in the team event. Next home were Memphis Symonds 59th, Georgia Pegg 85th, Grace Daniels 93rd, Madelene Bacon 96th, Madison Kelly 174th and Olivia Sargeant 203rd.
Three of our U13g bronze medal winning team relaxing post-race
The u13b’s took to the line next, with a young team of athletes who promise much in future seasons. Jeya Kandola lead the team throughout to finish a creditable 49th closely followed by an improving Toby Nelson in 72nd Newcomers at this level; Connor Gowing 100th and Dylan White 119th completed the team counters. Jack Abram and Charlie Crane enjoyed a race long battle to take 148th and 161st position with just 7 seconds between them.
U13B Jeya and Toby
The u15g’s race followed with the weather warming. Kate Willis led the team and ran with the leaders for the first part of the race before finishing in a promising 17th position, on her return from injury. Madeleine Short continues to show promise in finishing 34th with Grace Jermy (despite being felled at the start) 64th and final team counter Olivia Miller returning to form in 107th to bring the team home in 6th position overall. Emma Ledward ran a well-planned race, following recent sickness, to finish 184th.
The long awaited CoNAC u17m were next up; sadly the team were depleted by 2 withdrawals before the race, but despite this, Will Mahoney made excellent use of a favourable starting draw to position himself with the leaders early on. Will led the team throughout to cross the finish line in an excellent 12th positon, amongst a strong field. Fast improving Tom Mead produced an excellent run to take 34th with training partners Will Simm and George Cardwell rounding off the team scorers in 56th and 89th positions respectively to take 6th place overall. Despite being badly spiked at the start, Rhys Foyster completed the course to claim a deserved 109th place with Jamie Stares 130th and Kai Beadle 151st.
A smaller field started the u20w race. Millie Solway continued to show a return to previous form in finishing in a fine 20th place with team mate Amy Clarke travelling from University to take 50th place.
With the weather changing for the worse and with a depleted team, the u17w started from one of the more difficult starting gates.
Despite this Katie Goldsmith continues to show a return to prior success in finishing 23rd with training partner Lucy Emmett running well to finish 59th with Sophie Peach and Naryce Anderson rounding off the team scorers in 79th and 101st to provide the team with 7th position overall.
Next it was the turn of the u20m with the CoNAC’s sole entrant, Ben Spratling taking a well deserved 21st place in difficult conditions.
In the u20w event, Anna Hoogkamer used her fell running experience to move through the field, and with an excellent downhill run to the finish, took a well-deserved 84th place in a strong field.
The final event of the day saw the Senior Men racing over a very slippery course in driving rain.
With a number of athletes pulling out during the event, CoNAC’s athletes battled on with Dominic Oliver the first athlete to finish in a CoNAC vest in 171st followed by Tom Barker in 364th and Masters athlete, Mark Solway 483rd of over 700 finishers.
[Thanks to David Pring for this write up of the event]