West Midlands Young Athletes Cross Country League 2026/27: Race 1 report

Main Photo – Under 16 Girls: Anna Carey (#1069), Izabella Fereday (#1070), Grace Follows (#1071), Darcy Thurston (#1073) and Isabelle Wilkinson (#1074).

MATT WILKINSON reports

Cross country season is back!

On Sunday 11 October 2026, the West Midlands Young Athlete Cross Country League (WMYACCL) kicked off in Walsall Arboretum on a surprisingly sunny day.

Twenty-one young athletes donned the Halesowen old gold and took to the course.

With recent good weather the course was in good condition and being a relatively flat course set the foundations for some great running.

Amongst our athletes, we had two top ten finishes and a further six finishing in the top twenty of their races setting a strong foundation for the rest of the season.

The Under 18s started the days racing off and Jonathan Brown came home an impressive 12th from 54 finishers in 16:18 over the 5K course.

Ed Bates in 27th (17:13) and Theo-Lee Carpenter (17:21) in 31st also put in strong performances while in the ladies race Olive Thomas (20:34) sprinted home in 16th from 45 finishers.

They were followed by the new addition of an Under 10s race where two of our Saturday club runners put in brilliant performances with Meadow (7:21) in 7th and Bonnie (7:44) in 12th over the one-mile course.

In the Under 12 Boys, a fast Ben Goode stormed into an awesome 12th place in 6:51 over the 2k course.

Debutant Toby Tibbetts (8:11) followed in 88th with returning from last year Harry Wilkinson (9:14) in 106th and Michael Siddell (9:30) in 110th finished strong amongst the 115 runners.

Another debutant Nelly Gilbert (10:09) came home in 88th in the Under 12 Girls race, a great performance for her racing debut.

There was 108 finishers in the Under 14 boys race but debutant Michael Kantaro Early finished the 3K course in 11:16 for 22nd place, closely followed by Ted Thomas (11:31) in 31st and Ivan Bazeley (12:43) in 75th who confirmed he enjoyed this race much more than his last cross-country race and will be back next time!

Our Under 16s are also looking strong this season with Darcy Thurston leading the girls home in 8th place (14:47) over the 4k course closely followed by Izabella Fereday (15:30) in 15th, Isabelle Wilkinson (15:44) in 19th, Grace Follows (15:46) in 22nd and Anna Carey (20:49) in 88th from the 94 strong field.

Some great tussles for places expected amongst the girls this season.

In the boys Sam Vince (15:22) sprinted home strong in 65th with Samuel Couch close by in 15:24 for 69th place.

Everyone did themselves and the club proud and we are looking forward to seeing how everyone progresses over the season.

The next race is at Warley Woods on Sunday 8th November.

For anyone interested in competition just get in touch with Matt Wilkinson at ydl.lower@halesowen-athleticclub.co.uk

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