Athletic club youngsters shine
a brief report on the Nottinghamshire Cross Country County Championships on Saturday at Wollaton Park.
Anna and Ben were running in the U15 girls and boys races respectively. Anna is top year and Ben is in the lower year for the club races this season, whereas for the schools races Anna will be bottom year for intermediate girls and Ben will be top year junior boys due to differences in the age groupings with school years.
Anna and Ben were both County champions in 2016 (even though Anna was the lower year).
Anna's course seemed relatively short (4km), but with some steep uphill / downhill sections. The pace was fast and was led for the majority of the race by two Derbyshire runners. Anna ran a little way back from them and was comfortable with the first place for Nottinghamshire after the first lap. In the last 400 meters she decided to step up her pace and made up the ground between her and the leaders and ended up a comfortable first place in the race. County Champion second year running.
Ben's course was longer (4.5 km) and traversed some boggy and uneven ground. The surface was particularly churned up as his was the last race after being used by the senior men and women's races. He had some very good runners up against him (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire run at the same time), several of whom he had not finished ahead of before. He had a great race, keeping within the top runners for the whole course. His finishing place in third for Nottinghamshire was a tremendous result for him. A well deserved Bronze medal.
This secures them both good starting places for the InterCounties Cross Country Championships in March.
Good weekend. Great results.