SAUCONY ENGLISH CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Ros Kelling and Emily Thompson continued with the success of a coach and athlete combination at the week-end .That has developed at a pace over the last twelve months albeit at two different venues.
Kelling at Wollanton Park Nottingham in the Saucony English Cross-country Championships and Thompson at the south-east counties sports hall athletics finals.
The cross country on Saturday attracted large fields running on the course that hosted for a number of years the UK Inter-Counties Championships. The conditions offered the runners plenty of mud and water and the usual portion of inclines over the course.
Kelling again defied her fifty-one years of age to produce another classic performance. The race was dominated by International runners Gemma Steel and Steph Twell, with the former winning. Over 700 started the 2lap race and the Banbury Harrier settled into an economical start. As the race unfolded she picked her way through the field and crossed the line in an excellent 168th place. This placing way up in the veteran thirty-five age group, alone her age group.
Also in the race was Rebecca Biegal and in the same age bracket, she finished in her biggest race to date a more than satisfied placing of 500.
Two of the clubs young athletes also took part, Luke Sherlock using the under seventeen year old race for endurance ready for the track season finishing in the top half of the 300starters. This applied to Owen Knox in the under thirteen race when finishing 214th of the 450startes.
Thompson on reflecting of her previous days run produced an inspired performance for the county in all of her events at Burgess Hill. She easily produced personal bests in her two field events the speed bounce and standing long jump. On the track she recorded one of the fastest times in the four lap race. The best she saved to last in the paarlauf relay running with Jess Butler of Witney they started steady and moved up places on each leg. Butler moved into second place on her second leg, Thompson took to the front on the hand over and showed the style that captured the recent Midland 800metre indoor title.
The under fifteen girls fielding the youngest team and with five of the seven from Banbury Harriers finished a close third behind two strong county teams from Surrey and Hampshire. The other four girls from the club played their part in the result. Abbey Anson finishing second overall in the 2lap races, Naomi Anderson winning her 2lap race. Helen Dubber finished 5thoverall in the speed bounce and Paige Cooper gaining good points in all of her three events.
In the under thirteen age group Victoria Harte won the speed bounce, Evie Hawkins finished third in the standing long jump as did Felix Noble in the boys standing long jump.
