The National Cross-Country Relays, a new venture for many of the Middle Distance squad, produced some terrific performances with Emily Williams & Dylan Bowley both running superbly and featuring in the top 10 best splits of the day, setting the 7th & 8th fastest times respectively from all the competing athletes.
The National XC Relays were held at the traditional venue of Berry Hill Park in Mansfield, and are a chance for the squad to run over XC at faster pace over a shorter course distance than normal, and the mixture of tight turns and short sharp hills within the wooded section proved to be highly challenging.
The first race of the day featuring the Harriers was the U17 Women with a strong team headed by Emily Williams, with Charlotte Maywood & Poppy Carmichael. Williams was the starting leg and she off to a terrific start immediately settling into the leading athletes, with her coaches’ instructions to run the race aggressively to the fore of her mind, she delivered a top-quality performance to show she is slowly coming into top form, finishing in a fine 5th place over the 2.5km course in 9:01. Williams handed over to Charlotte Maywood who has seen a big improvement over the past few months, and she ran a terrific leg in a fast 10:05 to keep the Harriers in a prominent position, Poppy Carmichael also run a super final leg (10:28) to ensure a top 20 team finish, with Harriers finishing in a highly respectable 18th place out of the 76 teams competing.
Emily Williams coming into form with a superb 7th fastest split of the day
The U13B team was next, with Jacob Asher-Relf making his debut in the team and his first major Cross-Country event, despite this he ran a superb opening leg over the 2km course in 7:28, the fastest leg from the Harriers trio. Lucas rogers run a quality 2nd leg in 7:39 taking an amazing 16 places to hand the team over in 30th place, with Ernie Jackson running fine anchor leg in 8:16 to bring the Harriers home in a fine 41st place out of the 111 teams competing.
The U15 Boys team saw Dylan Bowley run superbly paced and aggressive race over the short 2km course where is track speed paid dividends in securing him a 6th place finish with just 5 seconds separating the top 6 positions, Bowley set the 8th fastest time on the day to show he is also coming into terrific shape. Ollie Read a bottom year U15 struggled against the much larger athletes, but ran a fine 7:47 to hand over to Josh Clutton who was shaking of the effects of a virus, but ran well in the third leg with 8:46 with the team finishing in 80th place out of the 114 teams competing.
Dylan Bowley terrific run to 8th fastest time of the day
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Withdrawals resulted in the U17M running as an incomplete team, but Morgan Potter & Josh Cannell both put in respectable performances over the 3km course with 10:54 & 11:07 respectively.
Well done to all athletes who competed, the 2nd leg of the North Midlands XC League takes centre stage next in Corby’s West Glebe Park on the 11th November