Kettering Town Harriers athletes were prominent at the Kettering & Corby District Schools Cross-Country Championships. Here are the race-by-race details from endurance coach Shane Smith.
U13G Tabatha Walford ran impressively and led from start to finish to win by 80m from Hannah Winstone, who also ran an very impressive race, finishing strongly to easily take 2nd place.
U15G Maisie Green (yr8) ran a great race and went head to head with Corby's Ellie Welch (yr9) for the whole race. Ellie pulled away in the last 300m to narrowly win, with Maisie taking second place. Also running well for third was Fran Ashworth who ran a very strong race to comfortably take third place. Anya Galletta also ran a positive race to easily qualify in 10th position, narrowly beating Leah Davis into11th who struggled for grip running in normal trainers on the slippery surface!
U17/U19G In a three way battle between former Harrier Gina Diaz-Santana, and Corby AC Abigail Morrow-Harris, Kayli Walford emerged the winner with a strong finish in the last 300m to clinch first place from Abigail, with Gina coming in third. Lucy Tolton also ran to finish in 6th position just in front of KTH athlete of the year Niamh Bailey, the multi talented athlete now adding endurance to her portfolio! Zsa Galletta & Kerry Green competing for the first time over X Country also ran well to finish 9/10th respectively.
U13B Gabrial Smith underlined his great potential as an endurance athlete by taking first position with a gutsy finish in a three way battle, with Ethan Mehmet running well to take third position.
U15B Jack Hope ran his typical strong front running race to easily take the U15 boys race, with the biggest winning margin on the day. Ben Tierney also ran well to qualify in 7th.
U17/U19B David Edwards narrowly defeated fellow Harrier Daniel Thompson in the closest race of the afternoon. David & Daniel led the race from start to finish, with David putting in a surge with 300m to the finish taking Daniel by surprise; however Daniel was closing in on David all the way to the finish but he just managed to respond to the late challenge and hang on for 1st.
All Harriers qualified for the County Schools Championship on 15th January 2011.