The in-form Dylan Bowley started where he finished in the road relays with a terrific opening win in the Mixed U13B/U15G 3km opening Cross Country fixture in the North Mids League at the typical location of Markeaton Park in Derby. Bowley sat in in the opening 2 km behind U15G Jasmine Cooper and then stretched his legs in the closing stages to surge ahead of the field to take a comfortable victory in 11:58 11 seconds ahead of 2nd place. With no other U13B competing it was U15G Emily Williams who was next to finish with a comfortable 5th place in 13:08 to open her XC account for the season.
In the 5km U15B/ U17G race there were good performances from Josh Cannell who is steadily improving to finish a credible 18th position in 16:44, and in the U17W race, the second highest placing of the day was from Claudia Nevett who ran a strong race, taking places at the end to record a fine race for 4th place in 17:55, with a good opener for Amy Robinson who finished a credible 15th in 19:28.
The U13G race saw 4 young Harriers in action, Freya Batkin was top scorer over the 2.5km course with a super run to finish 11th in 11:22, with good support from Skye-Lilly Kay who just pipped fellow Harrier to the post with a good finish for 19th place (11:51), with Mia Chapman running a solid race in 21st (11:54) and Natalie Short getting better at the longer distances in 30th in 12:40, with the team finishing in a fine 4th place.
Jack Hope was making his debut over the full 9.5km course ran a solid race and finishing the last lap strongly for 45th (7th U20) in 36:00 to top score for the Kettering senior men’s team, with Adrian King 107th (38:53), And Edward Cannell in 126th (39:44), Andrew Clawson in 180th (42:36), and Anthony Poncia 204th 44:53 helping KTH to 17th in the team competition.
The U11 saw Alfie Frayne finish well in 12th, and Ben Brooker in 22nd and Daniel Short in 52nd for a team finish in 8th.
In the Senior women’s 6km race Danlia Kasperski was a fine 43rd with 30:10, Trudi Pike 60th (31:26) and Barbara Poncia 69th (32:08) to bring the Vets KTH team home in a fine 5th place.
Further afield U20 Fran Ashworth, who is studying Politics at King College in London, ran her first XC fixture of the season at the Metropolitan League in her first race for Woodford Green & Essex Ladies (her 2nd claim club) and finished a very respectable 40th (5th U20) in 25:01 over the hilly 6km course, she was 5th scorer helping WG&EL senior women to 4th team position in division 1.
Well done to all who ran.