6th and 14th for junior women and senior men at National XC relays
Saturday 2nd November 2019, Berryhill Park, Mansfield
It was a cold and wet day in Mansfield as our junior women took on the best in the country in the National cross country relays. Fresh from an excellent victory at the South of England relays two weeks ago, the team were expecting a tough battle as a lot more clubs target the national race compared with the regional races. The team arrived in pleasant dry conditions, but about halfway round checking out the course, the rain started to fall and it just got heavier and heavier.
Like the South of England race held two weeks ago, Sarah Kebbell and Amelia Casey got the teams off to a great start. Sarah handing over in 13th and Amelia not far behind in 27th. On the second leg, Izzy Franco moved swiftly through the field pushing the team up to 7th place whilst Georgia Hanley also picked up a place. On the final leg, Charlotte Buckley closed the gap on all but the top two teams, making up one place into 6th, and Jess Dring-Morris maintained the B team in 26th place.
It was another strong performance from both teams. With our A team all still 17 years-old, they will have two more years in this age group and hopefully finish even higher in the future. Their 6th place finish, actually meant we were the 5th club team (university teams are allowed to race but don’t count towards the club-based national championships). Also of note is that we were the only club to put out a full B team, highlighting the strength in depth we have in this age group.
Huge thanks to William Buckley for driving all the girls up from London in the morning, requiring an unpleasantly early departure time.
Under 20 Women, England Cross Country Relay Results
6th: TVH A Team – 28:15
Leg 1 : Sarah Kebbell, 9:12, (13)
Leg 2 : Isabelle Franco, 9:35, (7)
Leg 3 : Charlotte Buckley, 9:27, (6)
26th: TVH B Team – 32:30
Leg 1 : Amelia Casey, 9:43, (27)
Leg 2 : Georgia Hanley, 11:18, (26)
Leg 3 : Jessica Dring-Morris, 11:29, (26)
Senior Men
The men’s team faced an incredibly challenging course with tough conditions underfoot by the time the seniors race came around. Our Valley men followed up the juniors fantastic result with an impressive top 15 performance of their own!
Antonio raced well and got us off to a great start managing the technical course and additional first leg challenges. He handed over to Conor in 30th, who was able to start moving through the field and pulled us through to 24th. Dan was able to keep the momentum going, picking off more athletes and passed over to Mo just outside the top 20. Mo finished with a storming leg to move us up to a 14th place overall!
Our B team also had a really strong result, placing 67th out of 190 teams, easily finishing within the top 50% of teams. Great effort and result by all!
14th TVH A Team 1:09:11
Leg 1: A Silva, 17:00 (30)
Leg 2: C Kissane-Wood, 17:41 (24)
Leg 3: D Mulryan, 17:28 (21)
Leg 4: M Aadan, 17:01 (14)
67th TVH B Team 1:19:03
Leg 1: R Vallance, 18:20 (63)
Leg 2: D Garcia-Rasines, 19:28 (71)
Leg 3: G Low, 19:50 (60)
Leg 4: S Norris, 21:23 (67)
Full results can be found HERE
UP THE VALLEY!