Kettering Town Harriers are very Proud that MD Athlete Alice Bates will once again represent her country competing for the Junior GB Team at the 28th edition of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Turin on Sunday 11th December. GB & NI will be sending a full team of Seniors, U23’s & Juniors (U20’s) to compete at the championships which will see 555 of Europe's top athletes from 40 countries do battle in what many consider to be the purist form of the sport.
Alice Bates flying the flag for KTH on her way to Turin to compete for GB
at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships
The GB & NI team finished top of the medal table in 2021 and astonishingly British teams have topped the medal table at 16 of the last 18 editions of the European Cross Country Championships & KTH’s Alice is part of a strong Junior team expected to get in the medals. The Junior races were only added to the programme in 1997 and the women's category has been dominated by athletes from Great Britain who have scooped an equally astonishing 25 of the 48 individual and team titles on offer. This year British hopes are headed by trial winner Innes Fitzgerald & Our Alice who finished a strong 2nd place behind Fitzgerald 2 weeks ago.
Alice Bates (center) after her strong 2nd place qualification at the Liverpool trial race
The event will be broadcast live on the BBC Red button from 08:30 on 11th December with extended highlights later on BBC2 at 16:00:
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Proud Parents Katie & Mark are sadly ill and not able to attend, but KTH Committee Member & Club Secretary Katie was ecstatic that her daughter was once again representing her Country at this prestigious event. “Mark and I are both Extremely proud of Alice for getting into the GB Team for Turin and delighted for her as she works incredibly hard all year round, and it’s great to see it paying off. Katie also paid tribute to Coach Shane Smith “We’re also so thankful to Shane for all his support and hard work with Alice”
This is Alice’s third National vest in 6 months and shows just how far she has progressed over the past year and she will be hoping for better luck that she experienced at the European U18 Championships in July, where she was unable to reproduce her best form in the final in the 1500m after contracting covid. Alice had qualified for the final with a sparkling performance in 2nd place overall and vowed at the time that the slightly sour finish to her first International Championship would inspire her to work harder for other opportunities to represent her Country.
This has been fully realised with easily her best ever winter season on the Roads & Cross Country in which she is undefeated as an U20 and she convincingly won her first race representing England at the Home Countries International in Milton Keynes.
Alice who recently scooped the Young sports Person award at North Northants Active Communities Awards trains 6 times a week at the Harriers Thurston Road Track & other locations in Northamptonshire with the Middle distance squad of 50+ athletes, and she has seen steady progression since she joined in late 2018 under the expert guidance of the coaching staff.
Very best of Luck Alice!!