2017 English National Cross Country Championships
Woolaton Park, Nottingham – Saturday 25th February
The 2017 English National Cross Country Championships were held at Woolaton Park in Nottingham on Saturday the 25th of February. There was a huge entry for the championships and a total of 5193 athletes competed in the array of races which were held on the day.
The conditions over the course were appalling with thick deep clinging mud and what can only be described as a river of water that the athletes had to run through.
Kingston’s Gregan Clarkson was a contestant in the senior men’s 12 Kilometre race which attracted a field of 1762 runners this was already Gregan’s 16th competitive race of 2017 which has seen him running throughout Northern England. The former County champion and two time World Biathle Champion battled his way around the formidable course which he covered in a time of 48:02 sec to cross the finishing line in 422nd place and finish the race within the top 25% of the field.
The under 20 men’s race was run over a distance of 10 kilometres and Kingston’s Harry Powell and Baldvin Magnusson were among the 211 runners battling their way around the extremely difficult course.
Harry Powell has been an outstanding distance runner for a number of years now and he continues to put in big performances not only over cross country courses but also on the road and on the track whenever or wherever he turns out. For a period he was the leading runner in this race and he put in a huge performance to complete the course and record a time of 33:39 sec that saw him cross over the finish line in a magnificent 13th place.
Training partner Baldvin Magnusson has had a terrific cross country season, in the month of January he picked up the County title and took the County Schools crown as well and before the month was out he finished 12th at the Northern Championships where Harry was a 5th place finisher. Baldvin put in another quality performance in Woolaton Park where he fought his way through the mud and mire to cross the finishing line in a time of 34:58 sec to take an excellent 32nd place.
The under 15 girl’s race saw Becky Chivers having her 5th outing of the cross country season where she was competing in a field of 426 runners over a distance of 4 kilometres the Northern javelin champion is a good athlete who always gives her best in whatever she is doing and she dug in here and overcame the morass to finish the race just outside the middle positions and record a time of 20:47 sec.
Younger brother Alex Chivers was having his second competitive run out of the new year in the under 13 boy’s race which was contested by a field of 458 runners over a distance of 3 Kilometre’s. Like a huge number of other contestants Alex struggled with the conditions but he stuck to his task and completed the course to finish in the lower half of the field and he crossed the finishing line in a time of 17:44 sec.
