Shropshire Young Athletes Cross Country League

Burrows boys start well.

The first round of the Shropshire Star sponsored Shropshire Young Athletes Cross Country was held at Longford Hall Newport. The rain held off all afternoon and the ground was very hard and the times fast. 20 more athletes competed than in the same fixture last year with a team entry of 10.

This year the Under 17’s race is wide open as all last year’s leading runners have left the age group. Both Under 15’s and Under 17’s start at the same time but after only a mile the field split to leave a leading group of just 4 in the older age group. Joe Morris of Oswestry, the only one of the leading group at the top of the age group followed closely by Josh Burrows and Rhys Furlong of hosts Telford with Ryan Cullen, Shrewsbury, also in contention. At the end of the second lap, the leading group was down to just two as Joe and Josh pushed on. Josh was unexpectedly left on his own as Joe dropped out as they started the third and final lap. He held on easily to win by 20 seconds with his club mate Rhys outsprinting Jamie Beebee of Wrekin College Triathlon in third. Josh’s younger brother is a cross country specialist and the William Brookes student came 4^th in last year’s National cross country. Being pre-race favourite doesn’t seem to bother him though and his time of 11 minutes 45 seconds for the 3500m course was exceptionally fast but he didn’t have it all his own way as his rapidly improving team mate Jack Forrester was just 11 seconds behind. Wenlock Olympian Arthur Charlesworth ran his usual even pace to finish third.

Another triathlete to do well was Lauren Pestana. Lauren is a member of the West Midlands triathlon development squad and was running for Telford Athletic Club. She used her increasing speed to win ahead of last year’s county schools champion Megan Turner of Ludlow. Zoe Partridge finished in third. The most competitive age group is likely to be the Under 15 girls where the county has the first two medallists in the Midland Championships 3000m. England international and midland champion Isabel Bradley hung on to finish three seconds in front of team mate Dani Rawlinson. They were nearly a minute in front of third placed Alex Cawlhra from Newtown based Maldwyn Harriers with Wrekin College triathlete Holly Barnett in fourth.

The biggest race of the day was in the Under 13 girls where 39 girls finished the 2000m course. Last year’s Under 11 Champion, Eva Wade, moved up to this age group and carried on where she left off, dominating to win the race in 6 minutes 11 seconds followed in by Katherine Smith of Shrewsbury 21 seconds later. The race for the third position was very close with 7 athletes arriving at the finish within 15 seconds. Georgie Benbow of Wenlock Olympians claimed third place from Ellie Sykes of Shrewsbury High School. The Under 11 girls race is always fast and furious, and over the 1500m course it is usually the one who slows down the least that wins. But this time there was a sprint for the line with Wrekin College triathlete Jess Humphries completing the course in 6-09 closely followed by Sadie Craig of Telford and Isobel Boden of Wenlock. The last finisher was over the line in 8-36 so this new generation seem very fit.

Freddie Fielding looks set to dominate the Under 13 boys races. He is a Telford AC athlete but this time was running for his school Packwood Haugh, first time entrants in the league. He led his team home to win by 23 seconds from Joseph Critchley of Maldwyn second and the diminutive Joel Roura of Telford third. Telford came in second team with Maldwyn a close third.

Shrewsbury claimed their only winner of the day in the Under 11 boys race over 1500m with William Davies first home in exactly 6 minutes. He was followed into the finish by Jack Benson of Telford and Greg Jones of Wenlock just one second behind. It was an amazing finish as these three just ran behind one another for all of the last 200m of the race with the small distance between them never changing. Telford took the team with the Olympians, Wenlock holding second place and Oswestry third.

In the individual competition runners it is only three races to count but in the team events all four races have to count. Telford look set to dominate, winning all the team events, except the Under 13 boys. The results were very close and the other teams will be training hard to overtake them in the four weeks before the next fixture at Oswestry School fields on Sunday 16^th October.