WINDSOR, Slough, Eton & Hounslow (WSEH) Athletics Club produced some of their best results in living memory at the South of England Cross Country Championships on Saturday.
The classic venue at Parliament Hill in North London again hosted the prestigious event where clubs from as far afield as Cornwall and Norfolk are invited to contest the championships.
The two middle distance squads are run by Shireen Higgins and Trevor Raggett and combined they had a fantastic day of racing.
The Under 15s girls provided a highly impressive team gold medal with a total score of 38 points. The side was led by fabulous individual gold and silver medal wins for Lottie Dewar and Rachel Clutterbuck.
Having won their respective county schools’ championships in Berkshire and Surrey the previous weekend, the trio of Dewar, Clutterbuck and Freya Ruffels (12th) were strongly backed up by Freya Wilcox (23rd) to deliver the gold medal.
Most of the team is in their first year in this age group which promises much for future seasons.
One of the other highlights was the performance of the U17s men where an individual silver medal for Will Barnicott was the starting point for a great team performance.
PHOTO: (l-r) The WSEH U15s girl's team of Rachel Clutterbuck, Freva Willcox, Freya Ruffels and Charlotte Dewar on the top of the podium.
The trio of Sam Hodgson (10th), Dylan Spencer (16th) and Liam Stone (21st) assured the team of a gold medal.
The Championships does not recognise B teams at the event but some simple sums recognise that Jack Campbell (28th), Declan Connolly (41st), Thomas Chandler (43rd) and William Goddard (53rd) were easily in fourth place and not far from the bronze medal.
The day had started well with Ethan Scott fighting hard for the individual title in the U15s boys’ race. He narrowly missed out in second place but laid a strong foundation for the team to deliver silver alongside Luke Birdseye (20th), Sam Johnston (44th) and Alex Bishop (57th).
The last medal was delivered by the U17s women’s team where Jasmine Young (11th), Katie Clutterbuck (14th), Amy Young (19th) and Izzy Craven (54th) secured bronze.
Other strong performances were witnessed as the U13s boys finished in a great fourth position. The quartet of Ben Dewar (30th), Nathan Rollins (38th), Guy Branston (43rd) and Marcus Hibbins (52nd) were in the scoring positions.
The senior women produced one of their best team results in recent years with sixth place from the 70 complete teams. The scoring athletes were Hannah Novakovic (31st), Alice Flint (40th), Charlotte Firth (58th) and Tilly Compton-Stewart (67th).
The U13s girls also came sixth from 36 complete teams and 297 finishers. Summer Chapman (14th), Eloisa Symonds (39th), Amy Cooper (52nd) and Annabel Bailey (60th) did themselves and the club proud.
PHOTO: (l-r) The WSEH gold medal-winning U17s team of Sam Hodgson, Liam Stone, Dylan Spencer and Will Barnicoat.
Although they did not have complete teams of four the U20s athletes also performed extremely well. Molly Jones finished in a great 14th spot whilst James Walker was inside the top 20 in 19th position.
If you are interested in a training session with the middle distance squad contact the club through teamshireenWSEH@gmail.com. People of all ages are welcome and there is no waiting list.
- WSEH star Sarah Chapman ran a super seven-second personal best of 9.23 seconds over 3,000m in the Aggie International indoor meeting in the USA.
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