Charity Cup Bonanza for Harriers!
The Harriers were out in force at the annual Charity Cup XC meeting held in the depths of an the recent icy snap which no doubt impacted on the lower participation rate, there was never the less some excellent performances from all the age groups with the senior Men easily won the Charity cup with a dominant performance.
Senior Mens Charity Cup winners from left to right Tony James, Joe Young, Josh Geddes, Josh Cannell & Ross Brown
With Temperatures barely above freezing and the ground rock hard on the surface there were difficult decisions to be made on the virtues of wearing spikes, with a split between athletes using spikes, trail shoes and trainers.
With the U11’s starting proceedings there were just two of the Harriers up and coming youngsters Yannick Chassaigne & Callum Johnson who both ran well just missing out on the top 3 with Chassaigne completing the 2km course in 7:40 for 4th place & Johnson 8:07 for 6th. Chassaigne was unfortunate as he lost a lot of time being directed the wrong way with 400m to go whilst leading and never recovered from losing this time while at just 9 years old Johnson making his KTH debut showed there will be plenty to come from this youngster.
U13B & U13G were supreme and swept the board, both winning their team events and the top individual medals. Tiggy Guthrie-Brown led the way with a terrific gutsy run for the U13G to win the Gold Medal, despite struggling with her breathing in the cold weather, completing the 3km course in 12:50. Clara Booth also ran a terrific race to finish with the Silver Medal in 13:02 & completing the clean sweep debutant Sabina Lawton ran a fine race for the Bronze Medal in 13:29 for a perfect Team Gold Medal performance!
Tiggy Guthrie-Brown with a fine win in the U13 Girls Race
The U13B fared almost as well with Harlee Hooker in imperious form with one of the largest winning margins of the day in the 3km race to easily take the Gold Medal in 11:48, with Rafferty Davey running a terrific race to finish to take the Silver Medal despite opting to wear trainers and taking a fall on the course finishing in 12:26, and Oliver Smith final scorer for the Team Gold in 6th place (13:38) despite finding the going a little tough recovering from a virus.
Harlee Hooker in Imperious form winning the U13B race
The U15G maggie Gancheva ran a fine controlled race over 4.3km course to easily win the Gold Medal in 22:31 in what was the largest winning margin of the day and spearhead the winning team U15G team with Freya Allitt 5th & Keris Hooker in 6th running well to secure the Team Gold. In the U15B race KTH also took the Gold, with a fine run from Evan Willis for an individual Bronze (20:15) with Finley Brooker (20:45) and Zachary Scott (21:47) both running solid races for the winning team in 5th & 6th respectively, with James Clutton also running a good race just out of the scoring position in 7th place.
Maggie Gancheva with the largest winning margin of the day in the U15G race
The U17M competing over 6.6km also ran well although missing out in the individual medals they secured a Team Silver with good performances from Lucas Rogers in 4th place (25:19), Dylan White in 6th place (26:23) & Ellis Johnson in 7th (26:55).
The best was saved to last with a terrific individual win from Josh Geddes in the SM race accelerating away from the 2021 champion, Harrier’s Jack Chennell, with 1k to go he comfortably won the 10k race in 35:34, confirming he has settled well in his first term at Birmingham University. Chennell finished a comfortable 2nd with a fine run in 35:57 with a solid 4th place with Josh Cannell (37:49), and good placings from Joe Young 6th (38:31) & M50 Tony James in 11th (40:34) & Ross Brown 13th all helping to secure a convincing victory in the Charity Cup. James also bagged an individual Master County Championship Silver Medal spearheading the Harriers to a Masters team Gold as well with Brown collecting the individual Bronze medal and with great support from Phil Brigden (4th), Rafal Buzik (5th) & Paul Wildman (7th) ensuring the Team Victory in the masters race as well. Ben Brooker ran a solid race as 2nd U20 (42;34) and there were good runs from M55 Bill Robinson (46:50) & M40 Graham McElroy (48:47).
U20 Josh Geddes with a terrific win in the Senior Mens race, spearheading the Harriers to a team Gold and the Charity Cup
A great set of results for the harriers, well done everyone who ran.
European XC Championships Turin
U20 Alice Bates who was representing Great Britain at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Turin, put in a credible performance making her GB debut over Cross Country finishing in 60th place over a tough course. It was not the result Bates was hoping for with medical issues in the build-up almost certainly affecting her performance on the day, but she has gained valuable experience and will have two more years in this age group to reach her full potential.
Bates who returned from the event tired will recover for a week before resuming full training and rebuilding, with a further International for England on the horizon in Belgium in January and in possible contention for the World U20 cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia in mid February she has plenty to keep her motivated over the next few months.
Alice Bates will look to rebuild for further Internationals in the new year
Congratulation to Alice on her first cross country race representing GB!