One of the highlights of the cross country season – the National Cross Country Relays – took place at its usual venue – Berryhill Park, Mansfield on Saturday November 2nd under grey skies but in general terms warm and wind free. The climb out of the woods didn’t get any easier though, no matter the weather. (RESULTS).
All photos on Blackburn Harriers Facebook Page – HERE
It was a pretty good day for the Harriers with top ten finishes for the Club’s Junior Men and U17 Men alongside Matt Ramsden posting the 5th fastest time of the day in the Senior Men’s race.. First race off was the Junior Women’s race, where the team unfortunately lost a number of its athletes to illness and injury which meant that Abigail McAndrew ran solo on leg 1 and had a good go at it, being amongst the first away and in 2nd spot coming out of the woods, eventually coming home in 9th place out of a 47 strong field. 66 teams in the U17 Womens race resulting in the Harriers – Charlotte Robertshaw, Isabelle Perry and Lottie Smith – placing 26th overall. Isabelle and Lottie were making their first ever appearances at the Nationals. Charlotte ran leg 1 in 9.58.88 handing over to Isabelle in 40th spot who pulled back 8 places with her 10.13.54 as Lottie on the final leg took back another 6 places with her time of 10.41.48.
Abigail McAndrew (205) centre of photo
The Junior Men got off to a flyer with Dexta Thompson on the first leg running 8.56.81 in 7th place handing over to Ben Stratton the second leg who ran 9.25.64 – Daniel Smith taking leg 3 in 10th spot and pulling back three places with his time of 9.06.39 in 7th place out of 83 teams finishing the relay race. The Harriers second team – Jack Lamb, Codie Dewhurst and Thomas Monks – finished in 61st spot – Jack running 9.59.11 on the first leg in 59th, Codie on leg 2 with a time of 11.13.71 in 68th spot followed by team mate Thomas on the final leg, pulling back 7 places to finish in 61st with 10.25.34. The Harriers U15 Girls team finished the day as a part team as Millie Jordan ran 8.18.48 on the first leg with Emma Robertshaw on the second leg running 8.20.68.
The U17 Mens race featured two teams from the Harriers among the 92 teams. The first team produced our second top ten finish of the day as Oliver Gill (9.20.70, Sam Aspey (9.33.18) and Jack Wood (9.41.58) finished in a fine 9th place. The second team came home in 39th place with Henry Ward on leg 1 (10.26.40), Ethan Cutler on the seocnd leg (10.16.43) pulling back 14 places and Logan McCredie pulling back another 8 places with his run of 10.26.13 on the final leg.
Penultmate race of the day was the Senior Women’s featuring 107 teams (91 full and 16 part teams). Blackburn Harriers – Rebecca Ward, Jess Warner-Judd and Vikki Robertshaw – came home in 30th place – it being the first time for Rebecca and Vikki running at the Nationals. Great to see Jess out competing in the team again after having to gone through a lengthy period of health issues. Rebecca went off on leg 1 coming hoime in 64th spot (12.25.17) as Jess took on the second leg, pulling back a massive number of places – 39 in total – with her run of 10.00.36 and handing over the Vikki on the final leg who came home in 30th spot (12.08.65).
L-R Rebecca Ward – Jess Warner-Judd – Vikki Robertshaw
One hundred and sixty four teams in the final race of the day – the Senior Men. The run of the day for the Club came from Matt Ramsden who led the team out on leg, placing 3rd in 14.45.05 which was the 5th fastest leg of the day and faster than every athlete in the first three teams. Rob Warner-Judd set off in 3rd place on the second leg, running 16.00.91 to hand over to Ross Harrison in 13th position on the third leg. Riunning his first National championhip race for the Harriers, Ross ran 15.57.38 to come home in 14th place handing on to Chris Davies on the final leg in which he ran 18.17.71 – the team placing 28th overall. After losing a number of athletes for the Harriers teams in the week previous, Danny Maynard was still determined to run and ran solo on leg 1 – posting a time of 18.58.32 which he tells us was a minute faster than the previous year.
Matt Ramsden (A18)
Still on cross country with the indefatigable Helen Leigh who has no idea of limits, eschews them and tackles everything, however improbable. Her latest competitions saw her win the Meall A Buachille at Glenmore last week whilst having a stinking cold as she described it and only went and won it. One week later, still ill and coming off night shift, Helen ran in the Knockfarrell Hill Race and won again and, in the process, broke the course record. Speaking to Blackburn Harriers where she is still a 2nd claim member, Helen, who runs 1st claim for Inverness Harriers told us that she “Wasn’t too keen to race yesterday after a nightshift and with a bad chest I can’t shift! But glad I did after a 2.5 min pb, and took roughly a minute off the course record. Second lurgy filled race of the week as I won Meall A Buachille the previous weekend too with a stinking cold 😁👌. Going well and looking forward to cross country season 😀
Helen Leigh (6)
