North Midland XC league – Shipley Park Heanor
Josh Cara started his XC campaign in style with a superb 2nd place in the 6km U17 Men’s race 3rd North Midlands League fixture held at Shipley Park Heanor. Cara ran a superb race sitting in on the first lap with the leading pack and then deciding to take the race on in the later stages and forging a small gap on local arch rival Alex Hanson, who managed to work his way back into contention in the closing stages to just edge out Cara who finished 3 seconds adrift. Josh looks to be returning to his best form after a series of frustrating injuries and will go into the New Year looking to build on this start.
Also running a much improved race was Dylan Bowley who finished a fine 7th in his best race in the series so far in the 3km U13 boy’s race, finish just 2 seconds behind Corby’s Morgan Potter, a big improvement on his previous outings.
In the women’s races, Claudia Nevett back after a month long injury with no running, ran a fine race to finish in 5th place in the 5km U17 womens race, with Hannah Winstone also back to good form finishing in 12th place.
Fran Ashworth was the sole competitor in the U20/ Senior women’s race and she continued her solid form over XC with a fine 9th position (U20) and 24th overall over the slightly longer distance of 6.8km.
In the senior men’s 9.5km race there was a trio of Harriers, with New XC convert Kemal Mehmet the leading Harrier in a fine 10th in the V45 category (114 overall), with fellow V45 Andrew Clawson in 14th position (137 overall) & Martyn Winstone in 17th (152 overall).
Next race on the calendar will be the Northants County Championships, held on 03rd January at Croyland Park, Wellingborough, please ensure you enter by the deadline of Monday 29th December, entry forms downloadable from the fixtures/ results section.