After the third fixture of the Birmingham/Midland Women’s Cross Country league was cancelled last night all focus turned to making the most of fixture four. With promotion spots to division 1 and medals on the line it was vital the team were on top form.
Harrison Miles produced a superb run to finish as first Harrier in 16th, with fast improving Matt Dwerryhouse next in 21st. Impressively, the entire A team made the top 50 with Jamie Bell in 31st, Danny Hunter in 40th, Harry Brierley in 41st and Cameron White in 49th. As a result our A team took 3rd place on the day and 3rd overall for the season meaning we will be promoted to Division 1 next year. A brilliant and well deserved accomplishment!
Although not scoring for the team, our other athletes are all vital in contributing to the team score by pushing the positions up of rival athletes, therefore increasing their team scores. This makes strength in depth key and something we were able to demonstrate superbly through the season finishing as 1st B team on the day and 1st B team overall in the league. This time around we had a further 5 athletes in the top 100 led by Heath Bampton in 51st, Al Raitt was next home in 58th, Andy Gore finished in 64th, Jack Mundinano was 69th and Ross Swain was 100th. Team captain Andrew Kaighin finished well in 111th with Tom Munro and Peter Digweed close behind in 112th and 115th respectively. Kev Goodwill (131st), Liam Kearns (133rd), Ian Giles (137th), Steve Bradley (145th), Phil Turbard (156th) and Michael Ede (169th) completed the team.
Going into this final fixture our women’s team had already produced two strong performances meaning there was no real risk of relegation into Division 2 as long as a team got around however a close contest had emerged in the masters team competition with a medal to play for.
Nicole Frith led the team home for the third fixture in a row finishing in an impressive 10th place. Ellie Balfe ran well to finish in 70th and 16th masters athlete just 2 places ahead of Sarah Sheppard in 72nd and 18th master. Petra Vymetalova completed the A team in 78th and 21st master despite illness earlier in the week. This secured 13th for the A team on the day and 9th in the league overall. Jo Wilkie, Sophie Bestwick and Hannah Miles produced strong performances in 92nd, 106th and 113th respectively. Jo Wilkie’s 29th place masters result meant the masters team finished in 3rd on the day and this ensured them a bronze medal for the overall league season too!
