Gloucestershire Short Course Cross Country, Swindon Open + Telford 10k

22 December 2021

Although the 2nd fixture in the Gloucestershire Cross Country League was cancelled the replacement Short Course Cross Country fixture still produced some exciting racing.

In the first race of the day, the boys and girls U11 race, Noah Chatterton made his cross country debut for the club finishing in a superb 2nd place, just 1second behind the winner. It was a closely fought race with 3rd placed Monty Wilkins just another 2seconds behind. There were also 2 Harriers in the top 3 for the girls. Eleanor Thomson ran incredibly to take the win in 6th overall, 15seconds clear of 2nd place. Martha Marsden took a well earned 3rd, 5seconds ahead of Heidi Woolley in 4th. Harriet Bennet finished in 5th and Isla Harvey was 7th. 

There was a double Harrier win in the U13 race with Elijah Marsden taking the boys win and Maddie Thomson winning the girls race and taking an impressive 2nd overall. Scarlett Eagland was 4th U13G, Verity Lilley was 5th and Freya Braden was 9th. Samuel Jarvis ran well to finish 6th U13B. . 

Dominic Martin and Sam Wilson have become accustomed to racing one another this season, with Wilson taking the win at the County Schools Cross Country 2 weeks prior. However, this time around it was Martin that took the win, pulling ahead of his teammate by 5seconds. Ellis Woolley ran well to finish 4th U15G with Isobel Watt just 10seconds behind in 5th. 

In the combined U17,U20 and Senior race U17W Kiya Dee got the better of her older rivals to finish as 1st female and 4th overall, less than a minute behind the overall winner. Ellie Balfe also ran a brilliant race to finish as 2nd L35.

Swindon Harriers 3000m Track Open Series produced another string of fast times for our Harriers. Jamie Harper knocked 10seconds off his PB with a time of 8:45.27. In the same race Isaac Henderson ran 9:21.48. Dominic Martin took the win in race 1 in a PB of 9:54.31. Harriet Smith and Isobel Watt also ran PBs of 11:43.13 and 11:46.42. Abigail Thornley ran 12:34.00. There were PBs for Guy Green and Bexley Turbard in race 4 with 10:24.12 and 10:24.30.

 Chris Wagstaff ran brilliantly at the Telford 10k running an impressive 33:20. Kathryn Morton was also in flying form running 46:55 and securing herself a spot on the England team for her age group at next year's Bristol 10k. Nick Holliday ran well to finish in 38:41 and Paul Willis completed the course in 46:22.