LWAC - National XC Championships - Alton Towers

Massive fields of the country’s top endurance athletes provided by far the biggest challenge of the winter for the Lincoln Wellington squad competing at the National Cross Country Championships. A testing roller coaster circuit around the Staffordshire hillsides was quite appropriate for an event held in the shadow of the well-known adventure park at Alton Towers. And despite one or two disappointments there were plenty of excellent Wellington performances to enthuse over at the end of the afternoon.

The star performance undoubtedly came from Nathan Page with a stunning effort to finish in 7th place in a field of nearly 350 finishers in the U15 Boys race. Never too far off the pace he was less than 20 seconds away from a medal place at the finish and does look an outstanding prospect for the future. Ian Maplethorpe was in the leading group for some way and although losing ground in the later stages a final position of 37th was another excellent effort. Matt Bee did not get a great start but worked through gradually to 129th spot and the inexperienced Ryan Stevenson coped well with his first major event in finishing 248th. Bo Haywood is another of the club’s highly talented young athletes and, in her first year in the U13 age group, 20th place was another exceptional performance. Katrina Thomas did very to come 82nd in the same race with Abby Donnelly 170th, Hannah Dunderdale 249th, Rhiannon Philps 256th and Mary Lester, in only her 2nd cross country race, 346th. Georgia Ball maintained her place on the heels of the country’s best young endurance athletes with a very good effort to finish 22nd in the U17 Womens race – despite losing one of her spikes in the mud in the later stages. Holly Haywood had probably her best run for the club to finish 109th with Katrina Sutcliffe and April Bontoft a little further back in 149th and 192nd places respectively.

Shane Robinson produced his best run of the winter season by working through the big field to claim a fine 32nd spot in a very strong U17 Mens race. Chris Woodger started well in the same race and although losing places late on he was pleased to cross the line in 133rd position some way ahead of Henry Naughton 254th, Gavin Campbell who was 267th and Neil Humberstone 280th. Haran Dunderdale has had a great winter season in the U13 age group. He found the opposition here very tough but kept going well to finish a creditable 57th. Alex Humberstone 163rd, Richard Brine 199th, Sam Chapman 229th, Lewis Goddard 292nd, Luke Martin 323rd and Jake Moss 349th all came through a testing challenge unscathed. There was little to choose between the Wellington U15 Girls squad with Laura Donnelly just leading them home in 123rd spot. Ellie Jones followed in 147th with Hester Talbot 151st and Megan Ball 157th very close behind. Next was Gemma Selwood 230th with Becky Wells 277th and Laura McMunn 286th.

Despite a healthy entry it was disappointing to see just three seniors representing the club in their races. Harriet Canter started fairly cautiously in a field of close to 500 in the Senior Womens race. She made good headway in the middle of the race but lost a few places in the dash to the line and finished in 80th place – a very satisfactory performance. The Senior Mens start was an amazing spectacle with well over 1250 athletes on the line. Phil Williams and Geoff Hall were the sole Wellington representatives. Phil gave a sound effort saw him home in 192nd place in a top class field with Geoff a little further back in 848th place.

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