The English National Cross-country Championships were held at Parliament Hill, London, on Saturday. This venue is notorious for being extremely muddy and Saturday was no exception with long stretches of deep mud along the 12 Km course.
The winning team was Southampton AC, followed by Leeds and Cambridge & Coleridge AC. Medway & Maidstone AC’s team wasn’t at anything like full strength with several athletes unavailable. The 6-to-score team finished in 44th place out of 337 teams taking part.
The individual race was won by Mahamed Mahamed (40.52) representing Southampton AC, followed by Emile Cairess of Leeds AC (41.07) and Alex Yee (Olympic Triathlon silver medalist) of Kent AC (42.04).
The club’s top individual was Tewelde Menges in 113rd place. Tom Collins was the club’s 2nd runner in 205th, followed by Justin Lane 535th, Harry Collins 713th, Alun Rodgers 856th and Josh Nice completing the 6-to-score team in 1012th. Gareth Williams lost one of his shoes early in the race, ran for 3 miles in one shoe, but eventually had to give up. There were 2091 finishers.
The Senior Ladies saw only 2 competitors with Karen Cudmore (446) and Bernadette Harrop (722)
Further results for the younger age groups can be found below.
The winter cross-country season is now almost complete. The club are waiting to see if the final race in the Kent Fitness League is to go ahead after being cancelled due to storm Eunice. The club have a clear lead in the men’s competition and second in the combined team standing (on the same league points). The final winter race will be the British Masters Cross-country Championships at Tonbridge on the 12th March where the club has several athletes entered.