There were some brilliant performances from the Harriers at the 2nd XC fixture of the season, the North Midland League held at the Harriers home fixture at Wicksteed Park, with two AG wins and 3 top 5 positions from the various age groups to celebrate. The day started off very fine with warm sunshine for the first races, but a prolonged and heavy downpour quickly transformed conditions to that more typical for a November Cross Country fixture, with slippery conditions particularly for the senior men’s/ women’s races.
The U11G were first off with high hopes for new 800m club record holder Jemima Davey making her league debut, she did not disappoint starting off strongly she settled quickly into the leading places enjoying a race long battle with Neve Valley’s Evie Hemmings over the 2km course. Davey just proved too strong for Hemmings using all her 800m pace to finish strongly in a superb second place behind Sutton Harriers Iris Clarke in 7:25. The U11 girls also finished in a fine 3rd place in the team event with good performances from Alyssa Preece 15th (8:24) & Amy Lynch 18th (8:30) the two other scoring places. There were very respectable performances from Kelsey Thompson (19th) & Ellie Separovic (23rd).
U11 Jemima Davey terrific run to finish in 2nd place
The U11 Boys finished in 4th place in the team event with top scorers James Clutton 15th in 7:49, Zac Scott 19th (7:55) & Evan Willis 27th (8:14). There was great packing for the other Harriers competing with Rossie Bevan 32nd, Freddie Ward 33rd, James Dennis 34th, Oliver Leak 35th & Finlay Brooker 36th.
Bottom year u13 Maggie Gancheva put in another top performance in the U13 Girls race, finishing in a fine 13th place with a fighting finish to just beat Derby’s Molly Emerson 0n the line with both being given the same time of 12:26 for the 3km course. Josie Click was the only other U13 in action finishing in 29th (14:12)
It was the U13Boys race which produced the only win of the day with a brilliant front running display from Jacob Asher-Relf who led from start finish and extended his lead to 17 seconds over 2nd place Notts AC’s Theo Simpson to gain revenge over the opening fixture at Derby. Asher-Relf covered the 3.3km course in 12.11 and anchored the U13 to the only tem victory of the day with a great run from Dylan white finishing in 9th place (12:59) & George Seporovic who also ran well for 13th place (13:30) to easily with the team event from Derby AC. U15 G Freya Batkin the sole representative in the U15G race for the Harriers ran a strong race to finish in 11th place over the same course in 13:55.
Brilliant win for U13 Jacob Asher-Relf who led from the start
The U15B race saw Josh Geddes top finisher with a terrific race, and great finish to see of Harborough’s Jo O’Connell just on the line to finish in a fine 11th place and complete the 4.5km course in 17:38 , Luke Cole was 2nd KTH scorer with a strong race in 13th place (17:43), with Callum Cox 3rd scorer helping the team to a fine 4th place in 17th place (17:55), with very respectable performances from Ryan Raulia, Ben Brooker & Josh Clutton in 20th/23rd & 26th respectively.
There was a much better performance from U17 Dylan Bowley who is getting stronger by the week, he produced a very strong final 1000m to surge past Corby A/C's Luca Mayes to reverse the defeat in the opening fixture, and finish in a fine 5th place over the 6km course in 21:41 with a strong performance from Morgan Potter to finish in 15th place (22:44).
Much improved U17 Dylan Bowley in 5th place
Emily Williams opened her XC campaign by competing under age in the Senior Women’s/ U20 race over 6k, and showed she also is improving by the week as she produced a very strong performance to finish in a superb 5th place overall, although the result will not be logged officially she completed the course in 23:55 and was chuffed with her opening run of the season especially over the longer 6km distance.
Running under age Emily Williams 5th in the Senior Womens Race for her XC opener
There were a lot of Harriers in the Senior men's/ U20 10k race and Fynn Batkin trying 10k XC for the first time produced a fantastic performance to finish in 3rd place overall and easily win the U20 race in 32:47 in a high quality field, and he will be a force to be reckoned with over XC this season. The Cannell brothers Edward & Josh enjoyed a great battle with each other with the older sibling taking honours with a very strong run to finish 2nd Harrier overall in 43rd (36:56), with Josh not too far behind 4th Harrier home in 61st (36:56) with 3rd Harrier home Stephen Thompson in 57th (36:46 and third Vet 50) and final scorer Phil Brigden in a solid 70th place 37:30 helping the Harriers to an excellent 5th team place. V35 Martin Allinson ran well for 72nd as did V45 Tony James 77th with Jack Watson 104th, Andrew Clawson 156th & Robert William Cole in 199th.
Fynn Batkin superb run to finish 3rd overall (win U20 AG) with first XC race over 10k
A superb day's racing in variable conditions, but with the establish members of the Harriers putting in great performances, well done to all!