National XC
Championships
Parliament Hill, London
21 February 2009
A somewhat depleted Lincoln Wellington endurance squad made the long journey to Parliament Hill, London for the National Cross Country Championships. The meeting took place in perfect
spring-like conditions but not for nothing is the course known as the home of cross country and its fearsome reputation remained firmly intact.
The hills were steep, the mud was deep and the opposition was of the highest class.
With a number of high profile athletes unavailable for various reasons, expectations had to be tailored but there were still a number of very fine performances from the Wellington squad and hopefully these can be built on at the
Inter-Counties championships in two weeks time.
The U13 Girl’s team were looking to follow up their recent gold medal winning performance at the Northern Championships and fantastic runs from Bo Haywood, who chased the leaders hard to finish 4th, and also from the highly promising Emma Tonner, who was close behind in 7th, gave the team a perfect start.
Abbie Donnelly was next home in 91st place but Catrina Thomas, whose participation had been in doubt due to recent illness, found the going really tough and finished 153rd. This still placed the club a highly respectable 6th and there is no doubt at all that when all these girls are fully fit they are right up with the best in the country. Blue Haywood is still looking for her very best form at the moment, but 14th place in the
U20 Women’s race was still a good effort and hopefully she is steadily returning to the top level.
In a Senior Women’s field of almost 550 finishers, Harriet Canter maintained her excellent recent form with a very strong run to cross the line in 46th place.
The testing going was right up her street but along with several others in the squad she found it just about the toughest race of her life.
Sarah Kimpton was pleased to finish 237th after losing a lot of training time early in the winter and veteran Susie Ardron had a great run to finish just a few places further back in
242nd. In the U20 Men’s race, Shane Robinson paced it quite sensibly to finish 79th with Beren Cross a little further back in 142nd spot.
The U17 Men’s team suffered badly from non-availability and Ian Maplethorpe, who finished 101st, was the only one of the winning North of England quartet who was able to compete.
Hester Talbot ran well to finish 77th in the U17 Women’s race with Holly Haywood 116th and Gemma Selwood 129th. The three
U15 Boys from the club all finished close together with Adam Baker taking 236th place from Jack Culpin 237th and Richard Brine 250th.
And, in the U15 Girl’s contest, Laura Donnelly crossed the line 139th with Nicola Isaacs 210th.
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