Antonio Silva back to form at National cross country
After a 2019 season curtailed by injury, Antonio Silva was back close to his best at the English National Cross Country Championships on 22nd February. This is a race that Antonio always enjoys having finished 15th in 2019, 9th in 2016 and 6th in 2015. Antonio ran strongly in the very muddy and wet course at Wollaton Park, Nottingham to finish in an impressive 16th place in a race with 1,700 finishers. Ten TVH men competed in the 12km race, with Oli Newton next home for the Valley continuing his impressive season in 142nd place, closing followed by Hugo Cayssials back from injury in 165th with Calum Nicol, Matt Douthwaite and James Horrex completing the scoring team.
Our junior women completed a very successful winter with an excellent 7th place in Under 20 race. The recent rain and strong winds made for extremely tough conditions and the course was considerably longer than the advertised 6km. Leading the team home was Izzy Franco in 31st place followed by Jess Dring-Morris in 89th and Georgia Hanley in 106th.
In the senior women’s 8km race Chloe Baker had another great run in 86th place from 900+ runners, supported by Christine Munden. Also competing in the women’s race was Dani Chattenton who despite not being a fan of the mud, ran well to finish 7th and is looking forward to much drier conditions at the world university cross country championships in Morocco on 7th March and the outdoor season where she will be competing for TVH in the National Athletics League this summer.
First up for TVH at the National were Molly McCormack and Amelia Seaton in the Under 13 Girls race, who both ran extremely well with Molly 73rd in 17:13 and Amelia 127th in 17:47 out of 357 finishers.