2017 CAU Inter County Cross Country Championships

Loughborough – Saturday 11^th March

The annual UK Counties Athletic Union cross country Championships were staged in Loughborough on Saturday 11^th of March and a total of 2625 athletes from every part of the United Kingdom had gathered to compete at the event. The age ranges of the competitors ran from under 13 boys and girls through to senior men and women and ten Kingston athletes who had earned selection to represent the County team were in the midst of the action.

The under 13 boy’s 3 kilometres race featured training partners Tom Smales and Adam Fox who have kept themselves extremely busy throughout the 2016/17 cross country season this meeting represented tom’s 5^th Championship event of the season and it was Adam’s 4^th They had both made their debut appearances at these championships at last year’s event which was held in Birmingham and they were looking to improve on those performances and that is exactly what they did finishing in the middle of the 297 runners in the race where Tom’s time of 13:25 sec was 49 seconds faster than 2016 and Adam’s run of 13:30 sec took 9 seconds off last years time.

In the under 13 girl’s 3 kilometres race Lauren McLean was running in her second cross country Championship meeting of the current season and she covered the Loughborough course in a time of 17:40 sec which saw her finish in the lower third of the race. Lauren will now look forward to the new track & field season which is looming large on the horizon, she is a talented young hurdler who is improving all the time and we all hope she has a good season on the track this year.

2017 County Schools cross country Champion Jodie Martin was in action in the under 15 girls 4 kilometres race which was contested by a field of 295 runners she crossed the finish line just outside the top third of the field and covered the course in a time of 17:27 sec.  Becky Chivers was also running in the race which was her 5^th championship race of 2017, she crossed the finishing line in the lower third of the field and clocked a time of 19:53 sec. Both Jodie and Becky are looking forward to the new season, 2016 saw both of the girls making big strides forward with both winning their first major Championship medals, a javelin gold at the Northern Championships for Becky and the 800 metres silver medal for Jodie at the same Championship meeting.

Harvey Roberts competed in the under 15 boy’s 4.5 kilometre race which was his fourth run out of 2017 his previous outings had been at January’s County Championship meeting at Barton on Humber where he was a 5^th place finisher and in the same month he collected another 5^th place at the County Schools championship meeting, the weekend prior to this Inter County meeting he had been in action at the Barton Open meeting. He found himself in a field of 294 runners at Loughborough and he completed the course in a time of 20:02 sec and he finished in the lower third of the race.

The under 20 men’s race was contested over a distance of 8 kilometres and Kingston’s Baldvin Magnusson was among the 163 athletes competing in the race he has had great cross country season and has finished high up the field in every competition he has entered he picked up both the County and County Schools titles in January and was placed 12^th at the Northern Championships and 32^nd at the National Championships. He put on another superb performance at Loughborough with a run 29:05 sec which saw him cross the finishing line in 30^th place.

Another of Kingston’s outstanding distance runners Harry Powell ran in the senior men’s race which was staged over a 12 kilometre course he too has had a massive cross country season where he has finished in the top part of the field at every competition he has contested. He won his 3^rd consecutive County title at this January’s event and finished 5^th at the Northern’s and 13^th at the National championships. 283 runners contested this Inter county race where Harry was the 53^rd athlete to cross the line finishing inside the top 20%   and covering the 12 kilometres in a time of 41:06 sec. A former Kingston athlete was also representing the County alongside his former training partners Josh Taylor-Brown ran the course in a time of 43:36 sec to finish in the middle placings. Our newest veteran athlete Gregan Clarkson was also running at the Championship meeting and he finished in the lower middle positions and covered the course in 44:35 sec.