The Harriers produced some fantastic individual and team performances at the traditional new year opening fixture, the Northants County Championships, hosted for the first time by Silson Joggers in a challenging course which included some deceptive inclines.
The Harriers produced 4 County Champions in the various Age Groups for the 4th consecutive year, secureing a total of 14 places in the County Teams to compete in the Inter-Counties Championships in March to make a terrific start to the new year. The combined U15 Boys & Girls and U17 Women’s race over 4600m produced two outstanding performances with two county champions crowned in the same race which also produced a fine U15B team Silver.
Alice Bates & Emily Williams U15G & U17W County Champions
Emily Williams leading the charge to win her 4th County title in the U17W race with another imperious performance which saw the largest winning margin of the day over 2nd place R&N Amelia McMurtie by over a minute and a half. Williams led from the gun and was locked in battle with a trio of Harriers U15 boys who helped her maintain a keen pace over the course finishing in 17:14 to retain her U17W county title with ease, as she moves towards full race fitness for the upcoming Championship races.
Emily Williams 4th consecutive County Title with an imperious run.
Bottom year U15 Alice Bates, a new addition to the Harriers ranks and making her club debut, ran an outstanding race in the U15G race to defeat the pre-race favourite, host club’s Emily Hinton, for the first time on cross country. Bates made a great start closing down the fast starting Hinton and moving past her after 1km to take the race on and stretch the lead to 10+ seconds which she maintained throughout the race, despite determined efforts by Hinton to catch her. Bates secured her first County Title in style completing the course in 17:41, 13 seconds ahead on 2nd place Hinton, and also significantly ahead of the 2nd place U17W by over a minute, to show she is an outstanding prospect and great addition to the middle distance squad.
Alice Bates brilliant run for 1st County title (U15G) making her KTH debut
The U15 Boys race also showed the depth of talent the harriers have in this AG, with Joshua Clutton perhaps enjoying his best race over Cross Country to finish just out of the medals in a fine 4th place in 17:13, with Harriers packing well for 5th & 6th place with the fast improving Luke Cole & Callumn Cox both finishing in the top 6 to ensure they make the County Team. Clutton lead the race at the start with a very positive approach which paid dividends, and battling with his club colleagues he pulled ahead of Cole & Cox with 1500m to go and enjoyed a very strong finish to secure his first county vest in 4th place (17:13). Cole just managed to pull ahead of club colleague cox to place in 5th (17:18) with Cox having to produce a strong finish to guarantee his county vest in 6th place just finishing ahead of R&N Ben Willison by 2 seconds (17:23). The boys secured a fine Silver team medal and look to build on this heading into championship season. The other U15 representing the Harriers saw Rio Carr finish in 9th place (18:03) with a strong race to secure a reserve spot for the county team, and Ryan Raulia (18:22), Ben Brooker (18:36) showing the strength in depth. There was further good news with Josh Geddes making the county team after a successful appeal (Holidaying in Australia) and Idayi Jumbe making 1st reserve (unable to get transport to the event).
U15 Boys Josh Clutton, Callumn Cox & Luke Cole fine team Silver medal
In the U13 Boys race there were further medals with Dylan White enjoying a superb race to grab a fine Bronze medal with a late surge in the final 100m to finish 1 second ahead of Banbury’s Ruben Snelson in 11:26 over the 2700m course to make the County team in a race won with ease by R&N Arthur Tilt. 2018 County Champion Lucas Rogers returning to full fitness enjoyed a great race to finish in 6th place (11:44) to make the final automatic county team position. George Separovic also enjoyed a fine race finishing in 8th place to help secure a fine Silver team medal for the U15B and can be considered unfortunate in missing the county team cut due to a successful appeal by club colleague Jacob Asher-Relf missing due to injury, but George will be first reserve for the county team. In the U13 Girls race run alongside the boys, the sole representation for the Harriers, bottom year Maggie Gancheva produced a superb run to earn her first County vest in 5th place (12:52), and with two more years in this AG the 11 year old looks to be a terrific prospect.
U13B Team Silver George Serarovic, Lucas Rogers & Dylan White (Individual Bronze)
Claudia Nevett returning from injury and using the race as training produced a fine performance to finish in Bronze medal position over the 6km course in 24:28 to show she is returning to good form and she secures 5th spot in the SW County team. Lydia Baxter, making her Harriers XC debut enjoyed a fine race to finish in 5th place (27:56) to join Nevett with selection for the county team along with Sophie Moss (Unable to race). In the same race the senior women saw Natasha Brown secure a County vest with a fine run for 8th place (26:14) with Krisztina Kurutcz in a rare outing running well for 11th place (27:26), along with Kerry Munn 13th (27:29) & Trudi Pike in 15th place (30:24). The U17 men competing in the same race saw Dylan Bowley top score finishing just out of the medals in 4th place in 20:24 to secure his County selection, with Morgan Potter in 10th (23:15) the only other Harrier in action.
The U11 race produced a medal winning performance for the Boys with James Clutton top scoring in 7th place over the 2km course in 10:34, with Zachary Scott just behind in 8th place (10:44) & Finley Brooker in 10th (11:00) securing a fine Silver Team medal. For the girls Ellie Separovic produced a top quality run to finish in 5th place (10:56).
In the combined U20 & Senior men’s race over a gruelling 10km, the Harriers had significant interest and they secured their third County title on the day, with Jonathan Goringe winning in style to take his 4th consecutive senior men’s title in 31:35 from U20 R&N Josh Lay. Goringe sat in the pack in the early stages of the race until the final lap where he produced a surge with 1500m to go to comfortably take Gold and join an elite group of athletes to take more than 3 SM titles in the 80 year championship history. There was good support for Goringe with Jack Hope running a fine race for 6th place (32:58) with Matt Fowler in 15th place (35:41), Stephen Thompson 16th (36:11), Joshua Cannell 21st (& 5th U20 in 36:56) and older brother Edward Cannell in 24th (37:24) all scoring for the team. Hope & Josh Cannell both secure county vests with their performances, and further Harrier interest in the race saw Phil west finish in 26th (37:33) with Tony James in 30th (37:59) & Jack Watson 40th (9th U20 in 40:07) all running well.
Jonathan Goringe fine win in SM race, his 4th Consecutive SM title
As well as the Northants performances KTH had representation at the Cambs XC Championships through Jemima Davey who secured the final County Championship with a convincing win the the U11 Girls race. Davey who lives less than a mile away from the Northants border represented her 2nd claim club BRJ Run & Tri and helped them win team gold and retained her title as U11 girls winner.
Jemima Davey U11G County Champion in Cambs Championships
Davey led from the front and built a commanding lead after the first 400m which was all uphill. The lead grew during the 1.7k parkland course and Davey won comfortably by 20 seconds in a field of nearly 30 runners.
Well Done to all athletes who competed, this was a terrific start to the new year and with race’s coming thick and fast over the coming weeks the Harriers will look to be hitting top gear!