There were some terrific performances from the small squad of KTH athletes who travelled to the 3rd North Midland League meeting at a very wet Heanor Country Park, which presented a challenging course and tricky conditions for all.
U15 Idayi Jumbe produced the performance of the day with a magnificent run in his first ever outing for the harriers over Cross Country. Taking the lead from the start to ensure he was not delayed with the bottleneck through the country park gates Jumbe ran a strong race, maintaining the lead on the opening 1.5km loop he was in contention all the way throughout, just losing his footing with 1km left which allowed the front runners to open a gap Jembe finished in a terrific 3rd place overall completing the 5km course in 17:15, a fantastic start to his XC season and showing her has real potential. Also running well for the U15B race was Josh Geddes who was the 2nd Harrier home in 18th place (18:27) helping the U15B team to a fine 3rd place overall, with strong runs from Josh Clutton & Ryan Raulia just a few places behind in 20th (18:46) & 22nd (18:51) respectively& and Ben Brooker also running well for 33rd (20:04).
Idayi Jumbe making an impressive Harriers debut over XC in a fine 3rd place.
Also running a brilliant race was the rapid improving bottom year U13 Maggie Gancheva who ran a great race over the main 3.4km loop, saving a strong finish to reel in two athletes in the uphill finishing straight and finish in a superb 5th place in 14:59, her best position so far this season. Josie Crick making her debut for the Harriers also ran well for 32nd place (18:05).
Maggie Gancheva Fine run & a big improvement to 5th place in U13 G race
U17 Emily Williams running in her 2nd outing of the season as an underage athlete also put in another strong performance over the Senior Women's longer distance of 6.8km to finish comfortably within the top 10 before exiting the finishing funnel.
The only other athletes in action were the Senior Men's/ U20 race over 10k where there was a great performance for U20 Josh Cannell reversing the defeat he suffered in the previous round by older sibling Edward Cannell and top finisher for the Harriers in 44th place overall (11th U20) in 38.03. Edward Cannell ran well for 66th place (39:06) just overtaking club colleague V35 Martin Allinson (67 & 3rd V35) on the line, with both athletes credited with the same time. V45 with Tony James in ran a strong race for 76th (6th V45) & Jack Watson in 115th (21st U20). The team finished in a very credible 8th place overall.
SM/U20 team Tony James, Martin Allinson, Edward Cannell, Josh Cannell & Jack Watson
The only other race on the day with Harrier interest was the U11B over 2km race where James Clutton ran a solid race for 24th (7:36) with Evan Willis in 27th (7:43) & Finlay Brooker 32nd (8:04).
Next race for the Harriers is the local Charity Cup fixture at Wicksteed park on 08th December.
Well Done to everybody who ran!