Aldershot Farnham & District’s runners came away from Beckenham with four sets of team gold medals in the South of England Cross Country Championships on Saturday. The senior women’s margin of victory was by far the biggest of the day and featured an individual gold for Georgie Bruinvels and bronze for Niamh Brown.
Kate Estlea in fifth and Lauren Hall sixth formed the second half of AFD’s quartet as the club fielded four more athletes in the top 22.
James Dargan triumphed in the under-17 men’s race
and earned another gold medal with Owen Smith, eleventh, Jacob Pearce, 22nd, and Alex Bishop, 34th. Kitty Scott shared the same time as the winner of the u13 girls’ race but added gold to her silver medal when team mates Tilly Robertson finished eighth, Naomi Walmsley eighteenth and Katie McBride nineteenth.
AFD’s other win was in the u13 boys’ event Daniel Orbell came thirteenth, Jack Procopakis 25th, Blas Rivero-Stevenet 27th and Lewis Bryce 39th. The u15 girls were second, led by individual bronze medallist Katie Pye. Maya Jobbins was 22nd, Katie Ealden 41st and Jess Mitchell 45th. The club was also second in the junior women’s competition. Pippa Roessler took sixth, Niamh McLoughlin eleventh, Kiki Webb eighteenth and Hannah Woolley 43rd. Bronze medals went to the junior men’s team of Raphael Rivero-Stevenet, sixth, Joseph O’Connell, eleventh, Tom Chandler , twelfth, and Liam Stone, 32nd.
Report from Roland Yeomans and pictures by Mark Hookway