Great day out at the National Cross Country Championships at the Parliament Hill course in London for the Harriers with good Individual and Team performances and results.
In the Team Competition – with the first six home to count – the Harriers came 28th out of 145 Teams – and – in the Team Competition – with the first nine to count – the Club finished 22nd out of 74 Teams.
Six to count Team Results HERE
Nine to count Team Results HERE
Senior Men’s Results HERE
Junior Men’s Results HERE
Senior Women’s Results HERE
Jack Hindle was first up and ran in the Junior Men’s Race featuring 190 athletes. Jack describing the Race as “horrendous” finished in 96th place (39.11).
Helen Leigh had a belter of a Race in the Senior Women’s 865 strong field finishing 44th (33.39) and just thirty seconds out side of the top 25 and said “Really enjoyed it, nice and tough, definitely taking longer spikes next time!“
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The Men’s Senior Race – with a field of 2005 finishers – saw Ben Fish lead home the Men’s Team of David Almond – Matt Nuttall – Paul Guinan – John Sutton – Andy Heys – Matt Wood – John Chaplin – Tony Greenwood – Chris Barnes – Karl Billington and Rob Warner.
Ben “Bloody arduous but the National, can’t beat it” finished 81st (43.01) with Karl – “Little less mud would be ideal, but enjoy it for the most part“ – taking second place for the team in 127th overall (44.04) and Rob not far behind as third counter in 144th spot (44.23) saying that he “didn’t really know what to expect before the race because I’d only done my first session in 3 weeks on the Tuesday before the race. So I went off very steady and just managed to work my through and did a lot better than I thought I would in my first senior nationals race on a very tough course!”
In fourth counting spot (225th) came Matt (45.39) who is having a terrific Cross Country season, had his own inimicable take on the Race saying “tough 12k cross country nothing more nothing less”. Chris who finished 2nd in the recent Muddy Shoes 11 Mile Race, took 505th place to secure the fifth counting place (49.22) followed by sixth counter for the Team – Paul who quipped “welcome back to racing”finished in 535th (49.46).
In 610th and in a time of 50.40 came Tony in his first Cross Country Race for the Harriers since the 1980’s and who told us that it was “Worth the trip to run with the guys and enjoy a couple of pints”. John Sutton placed 862nd (53.12) and commented “great day out with the BH boys. I was a bit laboured today having had a chesty bug over the last week.” A real pity for John as he has been running really well but he still gave it everything he had got as usual. In 9th spot came Matt ‘Woody’ Wood in 929th place (53.55) and said “Great to be back running in the blue and white of Blackburn Harriers. Muddy, tough but a great day out!”
David Almond was 1072nd (55.32) and was delighted with the day telling the Club “Awesome team performance from Harriers senior men today on the iconic Parliament Hill course. Proud to be part of it”. John Chaplin – “Tough, tough course but enjoyed the whole experience” – came in 1250th (57.34) with Andy just seconds further back in 1271st (57.50).
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