Juniors Take on The Best At National Relay Comp
Our Junior Harriers stepped up a level last weekend when three DHAC teams entered the English Cross Country Relay Championships. It’s one of the biggest events on the cross country calendar, with over one thousand teams, young and old, taking part. The venue was Berry Hill Park, Mansfield, where the event has been staged since 1989; the course was a mixture of good parkland, a wooded section with lots of undulations and a fast finishing section to make for some exciting competition, although the weather had certainly taken it’s toll. With heavy rain before and during the event, the course was very muddy, shin deep in places, but as usual our young Harrier heroes got stuck in and performed admirably.
Under 13 Boys The team: Elwood Kelley, Louis Brett, Harry Lyons A slight change in personnel from the Northern XC Relays a few weeks ago, with Louis replacing Alex Boyer who was unavailable this time. With 79 complete teams at the start, from all corners of England, the boys were up against some real quality athletes. But Elwood got the boys off to a great start in the first of the 2k stages, completing his lap in 26th place in a time of 7:30.10. Louis took over from Elwood and really pushed hard. He managed to gain a place on the way taking the boys up to 25th place, finishing in 8:06.80. Anchorman, Harry took over for the final lap and put in another excellent run, completing the race with a lap time of 8:01.95, a cumulative time of 23:38.85 for the team, crossing the line in 26th place. A tremendouseffort from the boys,well done!
Under 15 Girls The team: Mia Wetherill, Marissa Boon, Macy Kelly It was the first time that our U15 girls had run at such a big event, with an incredible 98 teams lining up at the start! Mia took on the first leg and ran a very solid 2k, completing the first stage in a time of 8:29.75. As she handed over to Marissa the girls were lying in 59th place.
The rotten conditions didn’t seem to effect Marissa one little bit; in fact she seemed to thrive on it as she overtook athlete after athlete gaining an unbelievable 20 places on the way! She finished stage 2 in 8:19.8 to bring the girls back up to 39th place. Macy took over for the final lap and put in a great effort to bring the girls home in 42nd place; her time for the 3rd stage was 9:01.75, making a cumulative time of 25:51.30 for the team. Top running girls, well done!
Under 17 Boys The team: Adam Russell, John Russell, Dan Boyer Our third team competing today was the same trio that ran at the Northern XC Relays recently. Three outstanding athletes in their own right, as a team, Adam, John and Dan are a force to be reckoned with. With 82 top teams competing it wasn’t going to be easy, but Adam got the boys off to a great start completing the first 3k lap in 21st place, in a time of 9:44.20.
He handed over to his brother, John, for Stage 2, and he put in a cracking run; although his time of 10:09.40 was slightly slower than Adam’s, he managed to gain 5 places bringing the boys up to 16th place. Over to Dan for the final leg, and although he put in an excellent run he was up against some tough competition. He crossed the finish line in 10:35.40, meaning a cumulative time of 30:29.00 and 29th place. A fantastic effort lads, well done.
Competing at this level is never an easy thing and our three teams certainly did themselves proud. Well done to everyone! If you want to check out the full results click here