South West Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships Bicton College 4th January 2015

South West Inter-Counties Cross Coutry Championships Bicton College 4th January 2015

With three individual Champions, a runner up, two winning teams and three in second, the Cornwall cross country squad notched up one of their best overall results at the South West Inter Counties Championships which were back at the beautiful grounds of Bicton College near Budleigh Salterton.

Some changes were made to the course which made it more spectator friendly but still maintained the challenging hilly nature of the main section used by all of the age groups.

Two of the winners had to dig deep to pull off significant victories over opponents that are at the top of National level, not only Regional, whereas Yoyo Barnsley, in the Under 17 Women’s race was totally dominant, taking the lead from the start and gradually building on this throughout the 5.1Km race which could not be challenged, crossing the finish line 18 seconds ahead of the top Dorset girl.

In both Under 15 races, the pattern was completely different but in each case, Sian Temple and Aidan Kent had a steely determination that they were not going to be beaten (picture attached with coach Dave Varney). Sian had slightly less around her once she and Grace Copeland had started to move away from the main group and these two were shoulder to shoulder all the way with Sian applying the pressure every time Grace tried to break her lead. In the end it was the Dorset athlete that crumbled and allowed Sophie Hamilton from Somerset to nick the silver on the final uphill approach to the finish.

In Aidan’s case, he had a group of about eight talented athletes around him, including club & County team mate Finn Birnie and pre-race favourite, Thomas Bourne of Dorset. Kent was happy to take the front running role with this group together over the opening lap. He made good use of the down hills which gradually whittled the group down to Kent, Bourne and Birnie. The leading two opened up a slight gap mid-way through the second lap but a final burst to the finish ensure victory for the Cornish athlete. Aidan and Finn headed up a quartet that beat Devon by eight points with Abhik Gupta at 12th and James Greenwood 14th. Kent, Birnie and Greenwood along with Alexander McCartney at 27th won the club Gold medals for the Newquay & Par team.

All three of these Cornish winners will now head to London in April, competing for the South West teams in the Mini-Marathon, over the final 3 miles of the main marathon course with a strong likelihood of being joined by Finn Birnie and Harris Mier who finished second in the Under 13 Boys race.

Mier led home a Cornwall squad that had all four scorers in the top eight to win the team medals by 12 points. He was unable to follow the blistering start of Wiltshire’s Rory Howorth but was still within 10 seconds at the finish and a clear 13 seconds over two Devon athletes. Behind these two, Bradley McLennan gradually made up ground to overtake team members Joshua Broome and Harris’s twin brother, Elliot Mier. They finished in a pack at 6th, 7th and 8th respectively and will be a force at the National Inter Counties to be held at Birmingham in March.

The other silver medal winning teams were the Under 15 Girls, led by Temple with Grace Brock, 10th, Elowen Penfold 15th and Katie Hughes 24th; The Under 13 Girls who had the first three in the top ten with Frances Ratcliffe at 6th, Charlotte Hicks 8th, Nisa Bowden-Inoue 10th and Clare Tapsell 19th and a developing Senior Women’s squad headed up by Emma Stepto who just held off team mate Eleanor Davis at 4th and 5th. Lucy Hodgson continued her comeback with 14th and Alice Rogers, was the County’s first Under 20 over the line at 20th, one place ahead of Debbie Starkey. 

The Senior Men just missed out on the medals but had Dan Nash in fine form, at one stage leading the race but having to give in to pressure from three Devon athletes over the latter stages, to take fourth. Callum Jones was the County first under 20 and second scorer for the Seniors at 14th with Tony Brewer hot on his heels.

Other County team placings:

Under 13 Girls: 22 Jodie Greenwood, 28 Tilly McDowell, 32 Freya Hocking, 42 Louise Mitchell, 45 Caitlyn Price, 48 Betsy Peters

Under 15 Girls: 25 Shannon Beckerleg, 33 Rhianna Giles, 36 Amy Walker, 37 Sofia Rescorla-Brown, 38 Danielle rawson, 41 Olivia Carthew, 47 Lilli-Keau Juntakereket

Under 17 women: 21 Lily England; 27 Naomi Rescorla-Brown, 28 Martha Carlisle

Under 20 Women: (Senior positions): 55 Megan Davis

Senior Women: 32 Jenny Nash, 33 Donna Raggett, 57 Jessica Buscombe, 61 Sarah Myford

Under 13 Boys: 20 Tom Randles, 24 Oliver Hutchinson, 25 Charlie Parker, 37 Morgan Squire, 39 William Wright, 41 Max gapper

Under 15 Boys: 16 Floyd Ratcliffe, 19 Archie Vingoe, 27 Alexander McCartney, 41 Sam Goodchild

Under 17 Men: 28 Tom Slattery, 30 Tom Luton, 39 Ben Rogers, 40 James wiulliams, 44 Noah Bygraves, 45 Joshua Taphouse, 47 Oliver Lord, 48 George Spencer, 49 Charlie Shipton

Under 20 Men: (Senior Positions) 41 Sam Lane De Courtin, 74 Ben Hicks114 dale Triggs

Senior Men: 27 Colin Snook, 33 Richard Pascoe, 36 Nick Ratcliffe, 40 Andrew Martin, 55 Stuart Nicholas, 63 Jez Mancer