Runners defied the worst conditions experienced at a cross country in the region for a long, long time to take part in the North East Cross Country Championships held at Temple Park, South Shields on Saturday.
With further rain on the day only adding to the challenge of what is a normally firm course - but which this year featured knee-deep in mud in several places - the three team and two individual Gold medals, allied to two team Bronzes, three individual Silvers and two Bronzes, won by the club were the icing on the cake of what was a memorable, if demanding, day for all who travelled. The first of those two Golds were in the Under 17 Boys race, were Elliot Kelso defied the conditions to run away from the rest of the field for what proved to be in the end quite a comfortable win with a 12-second margin, also leading his team to victory. Elliot was supported by Oliver Tomlinson, 6th, and Joe Close, 15th, the team finishing ahead of nearest rivals North Shields Polytechnic Harriers. There was a further team Gold in the U/20 Junior Men, won by Josh Blevins of Gateshead Harriers, with Joe Dixon again proving how much he likes the country and running very well over the terrain to pick up an individual Silver. With Liam Roche, Ethan Phillips and Bertie Marr in 5th, 6th and 7th, the team secured victory over nearest rivals this time Durham City Harriers. With all four finishers having been members of the winning KEVI team in the English Schools Cross Country Cup the previous weekend, it has certainly been a demanding time for the group who will now perhaps be able to look forward to some down time over the festive period. The final team Gold was in the day’s penultimate race, the Senior Men’s held over the day’s longest distance of three laps and over seven miles. With Sam Hancox and Will Cork in the thick of the action from the off, the leading group of six were soon detached from the rest of the field of several hundred, but a powerful run by Houghton Harrier Cameron Allan saw him surge away on the last lap to win by a 40-second margin, with Cork and Hancox collecting much enjoyed Silver and Bronze medals. With six to count for the team prize, a dominant club performance saw the next four counters in 11th (Connor Marshall), 15th (Tom Balsdon), 16th (Rob Balmbra) and 23rd (Peter Smallcombe) for a total team count of a miserly 70 points, with old rivals Sunderland Harriers in 2nd on 116 and Gateshead Harriers in 3rd (157). Picking up the team award for the twelfth successive year, the team were delighted to receive the trophy from club president Jim Alder MBE – who could, of course, remember worse conditions that he had himself run in! An excellent team turn out saw no less than eight other finishers for the club with Matty Briggs just missing out to Peter in 24th; Andy Lawrence in 30th; Ali Douglas 36th; Anthony Jannetta 74th; Lee Cuthbertson 78th; Ian Armstrong 80th; Lee Bennett 88th and Ben Heatley 89th. All of these would have made team counts of many other clubs. There was a further individual Gold medal in the U/20 Women’s race, with triathlete and Leeds University student Millie Breese making the journey home to pick up the trophy for the second successive year – fortunate, as she had completely forgotten she still had it! There were also team Bronzes in the U/13 Boys and the Senior Women races. Ewan Line picked up both individual and team medals in the U/13s, finishing 3rd overall but understandably frustrated having been misdirected when leading the race, although able to smile about it afterwards. His day will surely come. Ewan’s team mates were Evan Laude, 30th, George Moll, 34th and Jack Dhawar, 35th, with Darlington taking the team Gold ahead of Elswick Harriers. Last race of the day was the Senior Women’s, which was won as last year by Middlesbrough’s Philippa Stone, who produced perhaps the performance of the day to win by over a minute, a remarkable run given that the course had by this point cut up even further. She was chased home by Cat Macdonald, who picked up a Silver medal for the second successive year and also led her team to Bronze medals, with good packing behind her seeing Lizzie Rank in 22nd, Lorna Macdonald 24th, Robyn Bennett 27th and Kirsty Burville 43rd. Tyne Bridge Harriers, with 14 finishers, were team winners on 45 points with Durham City 2nd on 65. The club’s U/15 Boys were unlucky to miss out on medals earlier by only four points when coming in as 4th team, with Ben Moll 14th, Harry Douglass 33rd and Thomas Roche 65th, but it was great to see a full, competitive team again in advance of January and February’s fixtures. Emma Tomlinson ploughed a lone furrow for the U/15 Girls, coming home in 13th, with younger sister Zoe 32nd in the U/13s and Faye Heatley having a good run for 9th. (Again, a shame no team count.) Finally, the U/11’s opening races saw a Morpeth debut for Jacob Raper, younger brother of Lucy, who came in 41st - and will surely remember his debut in the conditions – and a super race by Heather Baillie, who was 7th. Well done all, runners, parents and helpers, who turned out. See Stuart Whitman's gallery of images from the race here. Simonside Cairns Fell Race There were further challenging conditions the following day for runners taking part in the Simonside Cairns Fell Race. With the eleven mile route also including some 1772 feet of climbing, it was certainly not one for the faint-hearted. Northumberland Fell Runners were at the sharp end, perhaps unsurprisingly, with Chris Larking winning by over five minutes in 1 hour 14 minutes 38 seconds with Craig Jones 2nd and Morpeth’s Richie Hughes 4th. Meanwhile Matthew Briggs, who had placed just outside the Morpeth counters when finishing 24th at Temple Park, made the most of his weekend home by taking in the race, coming in in 5th place. (After the previous day, that was some performance!) There was some tight Morpeth/NFR packing behind, with Anna Wright 79th, Gwenda Cavill 80th, Les Cavill 81st, Claire Calverley 82nd and Jane Briggs 84th. Malaga Marathon Meanwhile, over in warmer climes of over 18 degrees in Spain, Carl Avery was first British finisher in the Malaga Marathon on Sunday, completing the 26.2 mile course in a time of 2 hours 21 minutes 39 seconds in a race won by Charles Minera in 2:08:54. 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