Rose masters New course to claim Warwickshire individual honours

The new venue at HMP Newbold Revel featured a relatively flat course with a mixture of grass, wooded areas and fields and one hill of note.

As in previous years, runners were pitched alongside the Worcestershire Championships.

Kenilworth Runners’ Sarah Rose produced the afternoon’s standout performance, running 22min 52sec to claim the masters’ county crown, finishing 13th overall.

Clubmate Laura Pettifer was third in 23:52 behind Leamington C&AC’s Jenny Jeeves (23:35).

Jane Phillips was Kenilworth’s third masters’ counter, coming home in 25:17.

However, it was only enough to earn Kenilworth the runners-up spot in the masters’ team event behind Leamington for whom Wendy Daniels (24:15) and Sue Harrison (24:35) joined Jeeves in the gold medal-winning trio.

Saffia Del Torre (24:56) offered good support, while for Harrison it was her 19th Warwickshire cross-country medal.

Natalie Bhangal was C&AC’s first athlete home, coming home in 23:08 for 12th place in the Warwickshire Championships.

Zara Blower was the 16th senior county finisher in 24:12, with Courtney Depala (26:04) completing the Leamington contingent.

Fiona Edwards (24:22) led Spa Striders home, finishing 17th senior woman, just ahead of Jo Fleming (24:31) who was the club’s first masters counter.

Clare Hinton (25:10) and Susie Stannard (26:12), who is continuing her comeback from a long injury lay-off, joined Fleming in the bronze medal-winning masters’ trio.

Striders’ senior women, who were completed by Mairi Walker (24:58) and Helen Wright (27:08), placed sixth.

Bethan Gwynn (26:54), Kat Lambeth (27:38) and Natalie Dellar (36:48) completed the Striders turnout.

Other Kenilworth Runners finishers including category positions): 18, Kelly Burnett-Nicholl (25:44); 22, Celine Durafourd-Huckstepp (26:12); 23, Jane Kidd (26:16); 27, Stef Lunn (26:28); 30, Jenny Vaughan (26:41); 32, Tina Crow (26:47); 44, Mel Knight (27:44); 47, Tracy Edwards (28:19); 53, Kerrie Flippance (28:53); 61, Lucy Williams (29:37); 63, Sophie Cookson (29:40); 75, Emma Wreford-Bush (31:05); 45, Rachel Armstrong (31:06); 96, Samantha Moffatt (36:02); 97, Pauline Dable (36:14); 100, Kate Wilson (37:15).

Leamington’s masters’ men also claimed victory in the race with Paul Andrew taking individual gold in the category.

Andrew finished 21st overall in 34:45, with Phil Gould (36:03) taking sixth place in the masters’ standings.

Iain McLaughlin (37:09) and Vassilis Andreoulakis (37:10) finished 13th and 14th masters to complete the winning team.

Callum Hanlon was first home for Leamington, running a strong race to finish in 33:04, earning him fifth place for the county.

Rich Hood (24th in 36:31), Dean Mawby (29th in 37:33)) and Joshua Hough (41st in 40:10) joined Hanlon in the fourth-placed seniors’ team.

George Crawford was the first male home for Kenilworth Runners in 35:42, earning him 21st in the county.

He was followed by Ben Taylor and Dewi Williams who finished within a few seconds of each other in 36:58 and 37:05, respectively.

Matt Dyer (38:21), Wayne Briggs (38:39) and Neil Cressy (39:34) joined Williams in the fifth-placed men’s masters’ team.

Spa Striders were led home by Chris McKeown (20th senior male in 35:39), with Ian Allen (36:32), Gethyn Friswell (43:17) and Dan Stannard (44:04) making up the sixth- placed senior men’s team.

Clive Parpworth (44:57), Rob Egan (45:31), Matt Leydon (47:48) and Euge McNally (55:46) completed the Striders entry.

Leamington C&AC backed up their two masters golds at the Warwickshire Cross-country Championships with team gold and individual bronze at under-20 men’s level.

Baljeev Kandola clocked 19:52 for the 6k course to finish third in the county and fifth overall.

Greg West (20:14) was the fifth Warwickshire runner home, with Dominic Priest (7th in 20:23) securing a convincing win for Leamington C&AC.

Alex Ibbs (22:22) and Niall Salmon (23:19) completed the Leamington quintet.

Kenilworth Runners also fielded two runners at under-20 level, with Adam Houghton clocking 22:51 and Ryan Baker 23:04.

However, the Kenilworth duo’s performances were eclipsed by Oliver Flippance who, competing in the same race at under-17 level, crossed the line in 21:44 for 14th in his category.

Leamington also medalled at boys’under-15 level, with Jai Sispal producing a strong run of 14:59 to earn silver.

Ruaric Winston was 29th in 19:47, with Kenilworth’s Eoin Hankinson clocking 21:52.

The first event of the day was the under-13 boys’ race where Leamington finished seventh thanks to some steady running throughout.

James Gould (12:29), an under-11 in league races, was first home in 18th and was well supported by Harry Bailey (24th in 12:56), Jonathan Ingram (32nd in 13:34), Diarmuid Winston (35th in 14:04) and Finnley Newey (36th in 14:09).

Leamington Athletics Academy were eighth, with Daniel Wilks (12:23), Oscar Westmore (13:01) and Henry Cohen (14:13) making up their trio.

Leamington C&AC’s under-13 girls’ team finished in a creditable fifth place with Ila Lane and Isabelle Goold, two more under-11s just old enough to run in the race, running together for 24th and 25th in 14:37 and 14:39, respectively and Megan Marsh 40th in 17:11.

A depleted C&AC under-15 girls’ team finished sixth.

Mel Gould led them home in 21:44 for 13th, with Molly Minshull 18th in 22:26 and Saffie Chibba 20th in 22:47.