A full report on the West Midlands Young Athletes Cross Country League meeting at Warley Woods on Sunday December 4th 2022:
On a particularly cold early December morning, HA&CC travelled to the Warley Woods leg of the West Midland Young Athletes Cross Country League.
They were greeted by junior athletes coach, Ian Priest, who had been there since the crack of dawn setting up the club tent and who would be on hand all day to look after the athletes and distribute vest numbers, as well as providing pearls of race wisdom to those making their debut appearances.
The under 11 boys were the first of our teams out with Bailey Harris finishing in 55th place, Sam Vince 60th, Sam Hurst 62nd, Tristan James 66th and Indiana Nash in 90th.
Next up came the under 17 men where we saw George Allen force his way into an impressive 16th place with James Pugh in 44th.
The under 11 girls fielded an impressive number of competitors for the club with Scarlett Carter the first Halesowen girl back in 42nd place closely followed by Peggy Thomas 45th, Niamh Stanfield 67th and Eden Smith in 78th.
Under 15 boys were next up with Alex Taylor breaking into the top 10 coming in 9th. This was an especially strong field which makes this performance even more impressive.
The rest of his team decided it was safer to stick together and not let anybody else through with Oliver Smith, Ruben Ray, Jack Leader and Daniel Morgan-Salcombe finishing 48th, 49th, 50th and 51st with Ethan Smith completing this team performance finishing in 69th. Good work guys!!
It was then the turn of the under 13 girls with Olive Thomas producing another amazing run to once again come in in 1st place.
Amelia Sherwood was 47th closely followed by Edith Pleasant in 49th, Nancy Thomas 61st, Abbeyeer Al-Amer 66th and Niamh Brennan 88th.
The under 13 boys was the penultimate race.
Edward Bates put in another fine performance crossing the line in 15th with Tobi Sykes 38th, James Duck 55th and Daniel Benninson 72nd.
The under 15 girls were last to go out.
Ffion Collins came is 2nd position with Jessica Dale in 3rd, Lucy Hellingsworth in 6th, Annabel Stark 16th and Poppy Dunlop in 30th.
These impressive finishing positions from all under 15 girls helped to secure a first place team performance on the day.
Thanks to all athletes, coaches, officiators and volunteers who helped to put on this event and make it the success it was.
The next round will be at Nuneaton with a group practice run for all WMYACCL athletes on the Saturday before from the club at 2pm on 8th January.
#upOwen
Leave a Reply