Gwent XC League – 5th (& final) fixture at Blaise Castle, March 1st 2008

 

The final Gwent Cross Country League match at Blaise Castle, Bristol, on Saturday saw the Harriers confirmed as one of the strongest teams across the region with some excellent performances at all ages.

 

The Harriers senior women and men were confirmed as Divisional champions whilst the u’13 girls were awarded 3rd place overall. Given that the League is contested by over 50 Clubs from across South Wales and the Gloucestershire and Somerset areas, including Bristol and Bath this is no mean feat. With Jenny Moore winning the individual women’s League title the Harriers also provided one of the outright winners and also had an age-based winner in membership secretary Angela Thomas, and at least 5 other athletes at different age groups in the top ten in each category.

 

In the performances on the day on the twisting and undulating course at Blaise Castle there were some outstanding runs by the 30 or so Harriers that competed. Proceedings got underway with the Minors races where Year 5 Danny Kennedy finished in his highest place this season with 12th. In the Minor girls race there were some great runs by the trio of Abigail Gibbons, Jemma Jones and Amy Gibbons with Abigail coming home the strongest in 10th place just ahead of Jemma. This was good enough for Abigail to finish in 6th place overall in the League and to be presented with one of the prestigious League awards. Abi thus picked up her 3rd award in two days following the Club Annual presentations evening the night before!

 

In the next age group up the Harriers saw 4 of its strong u’13 girl’s team finish in the first ten home over the 2.5km course. Kayley Kennedy made a late decision to run given that she along with team mates will be running again at the English School XC Championships on Friday. Kayley was 5th, with Vera Assis a stride or two behind in 6th, Lauren Willows 9th and Siobhan Stewart 10th. This performance was good enough for Kayley to finish in the top 10 overall after the five fixtures. The accumulated points total from the day and the other four fixtures was good enough for the Harriers u13 girls to be awarded the 3rd place overall in the League behind a very strong Bridgend team.

 

In the corresponding u13 boys fixture, Oliver Fox likewise ran another great race for 8th place to finish in the overall top ten, and was closely followed home by Curtis Stevens, 9th, with Matthew Cole 19th and Marcus Gibbons, 42nd, also having good runs. Oliver has another two, and Curtis and Matthew another year in this age group. Marcus showed he lacks no energy by demonstrating his prodigious footballing skills after the race!

 

In the u’15 girls race over 3.2km only Jessica Woods made the journey to Bristol and finished in her highest position in the League to date with an excellent 12th place. In the u15 boys race George Harris ran a great race for 7th place with Cameron Rafferty, 16th, Sam Hall 22nd and Reuben Whitcombe 26th. All four finished in their highest positions to date in the League and all four have another year in this age group and will surely move up the rankings next year as they continue to improve.

 

Laura Parker ran in the u20s race in order to test her fitness ahead of other fixtures coming up and was disappointed to finish in 10th place but it was against a tough field of mainly older athletes. In the senior women’s race Jenny Moore again showed why she is one of the best on the block for endurance running with a gutsy 4th place over the 5km course. This was good enough for her to clinch the League title outright and follows on from her being recently announced as Female Club Athlete of the Year. Jenny was awarded the Club’s Athlete of the Year award on the Friday evening along with the Marathon performance of the Year award for her 3.00.03 clocking from the 2007 London event. She was out on Sunday doing a 15 mile run in preparation for London 2008.

 

Also competing well in the women’s race was Angela Thomas with her 81st position which clichéd the 1st F60 League award for the season as a whole. The women’s team were duly awarded the divisional Championship following all five fixtures.

 

With a number of the senior men hoping to be fit and ready for the more important inter-counties race in mid-March, the men’s team at Bristol was led home by Jon Gilling in 18th place from amongst the 200 starters. Andrew Deamer was 30th, with Rod Appleby a solid 108th by coming through the field, and Karl Watts showing that his marathon training is paying off in 113th place. Geoff Cole, 135th, Pete Wright, 157th, Paul Chadwick, 163rd, Rex Whitcombe 172nd, and Clive Gibbons, 196th, all contributed to the team points total to ensure that the men finished the season as Divisional Champions. Well done in particular to Rex who was making his debut in a Harrier vest and his first race for almost 20 years, and to the Gibbons family for making it a true family outing with 4 of them competing.

 

The end of season results indicate that the Club has easily made the transition from the local Wessex League where 5 out of 10 team awards were won last year to the tougher more competitive environment of the Gwent League. Well done to all of the athletes that have contributed to this outstanding success, and to all team managers and parents that have supported the team.

 

Good luck to all the Harrier juniors running in the English Schools cross-country championships at Liverpool on Saturday March 8th.