Aldershot Farnham & District’s under-15 girls won the English cross country relay title as their club’s runners claimed medals in six of the ten events at Mansfield on Saturday. Katie Pye put AFD ahead after taking over from Lottie Quinn who finished third on the first leg six seconds behind the leader. Emmeline Orbell completed the race with seventeen seconds to spare over Blackheath & Bromley Harriers.
The u13 girls had to settle for second. Kitty Scott had put them there on the second leg after taking over from Jess Allen in eighth but Tilly Robertson could not catch Birtley’s Nell Graham on the anchor. The club’s B team was eighth with Katie McBride, Naomi Walmsley and Felicity Croucher.
After Ben Bradley and Ricky Harvie had run the first two legs, AFD were lying fifth in the senior men’s event, the only one comprising four legs. Ellis Cross then put the team into the lead but Joe Morwood was overtaken by Emile Cairess, runner-up at the National championships in February, who took Leeds City to victory, and Jonathan Escalante-Phillips, eighth fastest at last month’s National road relays, who anchored Cambridge & Coleridge to the silver medals.
AFD’s senior women also finished third. Nancy Scott was eighth on the opener and Kate Estlea gained the five places on the second leg. Steph Twell did gain another on the anchor but, while former European champion Gemma Steel was securing Charnwood’s gold medals, the AFD athlete was herself passed by Lincoln Wellington’s Abbie Donnelly who was twelfth at the last European Championships
There were two other sets of bronze medals for AFD. Ryan Martin and Tom Chandler were both seventh at the end of their stints in the junior men’s event before National champion Will Barnicoat gained the four places required. Sam Nesbitt, Joseph O’Connell and Liam Stone formed the club’s B team that came seventh. James Dargan promoted the u17s to third after legs by Owen Smith and Jacob Pearce. Jack Procopakis, Daniel Orbell and Blas Rivero-Stevenet were one second outside the medals when placing fourth in the u13 boys’ competition. The junior women’s team of Niamh McLoughlin, Pippa Roessler and Kiki Webb was fifth.