Despite the long drive to Mansfield, and the appaling weather AFD dominated the meeting gaining 6 medals from the 10 races.
Aldershot Farnham & District’s under-15 girls successfully defended the English Cross Country Relay title with a completely different trio of runners. Kitty Scott took over from Maya Jobbins, who finished the first leg one second behind the leader with what turned out to be the sixth quickest time of the race, and clocked the third quickest when building a commanding lead. Tilly Robertson was untroubled on the anchor leg although Grace Igoe, the North of England silver medallist from last season, brought Rotherham Harriers to within eleven seconds.
Poppy Guest recorded the fastest time in the u13 girls’ event where she anchored AFD to the title. She set off in fourth after legs by Felicity Croucher and Kitty Dover, and turned a deficit of 26 seconds into an advantage of six over Chelmsford. James Dargan was second fastest overall when anchoring AFD to victory in the junior men’s competition. Tom Chandler had opened the club’s account before Joseph O’Connell moved up to second with the ninth fastest clocking. The B team of Liam Stone, Matthew Pickering and Dan Shattock placed sixth.
The senior women provided both the silver and bronze medallists at Mansfield. Lauren Hall ran the fourth quickest time when placing second on the opener, a couple of seconds off the lead. AFD were still in the silver-medal position after the second leg but it was their B team. Niamh Brown had overtaken Louise Small when moving up from the tenth place achieved by Kate Estlea-Morris and clocking the fastest time of the race. The A team’s Amy Griffiths clocked the tenth fastest to swop places with Millie Jordan-Lee on the anchor but Belgrave Harriers, who had led from the start, were already well away when National champion Sarah Astin set off for them.
The senior men’s contest featured the closest finish of the day despite comprising four longer legs. Following those by Joe Blacknell and Callum Charleston, AFD were sixteenth. Ellis Cross was tenth fastest when promoting the club to fifth, sending out Will Barnicoat twenty seconds behind the leader and fourteen seconds behind Cambridge & Coleridge for whom Callum Elson went out in second. Elson, ninth in the National championship, gained the lead while Barnicoat, the National junior champion, moved through to second. The latter drew almost level as they approached the home straight but his rival had enough left to reach the line with two seconds to spare.
Katie Pye was second fastest overall in the u17 women’s event when anchoring AFD team mates Lottie Quinn and Emmeline Orbell to eighth. Also second fastest was Pippa Roessler who combined with Kiki Webb and Markella Misirli for ninth in the junior women’s event. Daniel Orbell, Luke Shattock and Blas Rivero-Stevenet completed the top ten in the u15 boys’ competition.
The only disappointment was the the UK will not be sending teams to the European Champion Clubs Cross Country Championships as the date clashes with the English National Cross Country and thus AFD are deprived of the opertinity to show case there capabilities on the European stage.