Lancashire County Cross Country Championships
A really good day yesterday at Witton Park (05/01/25) for the Lancashire Cross Country Championships.
Typically it was cold and muddy but everyone did well.
We had some standout performances with some of our athletes (past and present) being selected to run for the county in March.
In the U11 boys, Zac Rimmer finished in 6th position. The county selection doesn’t start until u13 but Zac is well placed for future years
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U13 girls, Poppy Colothan finished in 6th and secured a Lancashire Vest.
U17 men, Reuben Anderson had a super 2nd half to the race also to finish 6th and qualify.
U20 women, Kate Sutcliffe finished 2nd and qualified for the senior women’s Lancashire team.
Debbie Crook finished 2nd in her age category and a very strong 13th overall.
Rachel Yates finished 2nd in her age category, also with a very strong overall position of 27th.
Friends of the club, Sarah Yates, Matthew Bennett Simon Collins and Ross Harrison all qualified for Lancashire. Sarah, particularly impressive as she won the u17 ladies event by a significant margin. Simon completed the course in 32nd place whilst Ross finished in 2nd place behind someone even taller than him and Matthew Bennett looked strong to finish in 7th position. Well done to them all.
It was a good day overall for the senior ladies who finished 2nd team overall and also in the vets placing. This is a really impressive turnaround given it wasn’t too long ago when we struggled to even get enough people to make a team up, let alone finish 2nd in the county.
In the senior men’s event, a team of 5 meant that we didn’t get a team placing but, again, some super individual performances.
Mark Hudson won the 1st place for over 65 age group.
Chris Melling finished in 24th place and the returning from long term injury Oliver Sutcliffe in a strong 34th.
Adrian Rogers swapped the half marathon and marathons for the “softer underfoot” conditions and navigated the mud to finish in 56th.
Debutant Steven Newbold, had a great 1st race for the club. He must have wondered what he’d let himself in for after seeing the saucer and mud bath at the bottom of it 4 times but he got stronger as the event went on and finished well in 64th.
So on to the next events – mid Lancs on 11th January at Blackpool and the Northern Cross Country Championships at Tatton Park on 25th January for age groups of u13 to seniors. We’re looking forward to having full teams out for that.
There’s a set of photos here https://kit8cb6.myportfolio.com/