Bossing it at the Southern XC Champs

Chelmsford Athletic Club - again amongst the medals with two team victories and a gold and bronze individual at the South of England cross country championships.

The under 17 men`s event had Sam Plummer taking the pole position and Joseph Grange just eight seconds down for third place. Close up Jacob Hurrell finished fifth and with Arthur Ballard 24th there was a comfortable team win with 33 points ahead of Norwich on 70. In reserve Gregory Martin`s 42nd place would still seen us taking the title.

Although just missing out on the individual medals the under 13 girls can claim to

have been the more dominant team. Brentwood`s Summer Smith has seen success

in all races at this age group over the season and again headed the field. Ava King

is also showing great form as her fourth place here testifies. With Heidi Woodley 9th

Erin Kelly 10th and Francesca Phillips 15th there 38 points put them ahead of

Aldershot for their second set of `gold's` have won the relay championship in the

Autumn. It should be noted that the next four CAC members - Lily Sanford 22nd,

Beatrix Cooke 39th, Isla Kehoe 46th and Orla Martin 52nd give a total of 159 points

which would have given the edge over Windsor`s 165 had the system used by Essex

been used.

Pick of other performances saw Ezrah Harrold placing 5th in the under 15 girls with

Daisy Stollery 10th, Hetty Harrison 68th and Katie Cox 140th. The team placing 7th

just ahead of local rivals Brentwood Beagles for whom Olivier Forrester was first home.

There was another fine run by Fred Ferman in the under 13 boys as he placed 6th.

with Khaya Fakazi 70th and Oscar Stollery 100th the team failed to close in.

It was likewise with the under 15 boys with Austin Kelly 25th and Joshua Eida 61st

our only competitors. Again we lacked a full team in the under 20 women where

Kiera Atkinson had a good run to place 7th with Sophie McCullum 31st and Sophie

McCall 82nd. We do finish off however with two further sixth places in the team stakes.

Kayleigh Atkinson 13th led the under 17 women home with Sienna Shipton 35th, Lucy

Nuttall 58th and Emma Cox 62nd. The under 20 men squad had William Nuttall 29th,

Joseph Perry 41st, Thomas Woodward 49th and Jacob Alexander 71st.

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Report written & compiled by Roy Meadowcroft

A Great Day at the Essex Schools Champs

What a day for Chelmsford athletes at the Essex Schools cross country championships.

Not all were representing our local district Mid Essex and indeed five individual medals came from other areas including two winners. In the senior boys Sam Plummer in the colours of North East claimed the major honours whilst next home was Joe Grange bearing the colours of Havering. Now the Mid Essex were also to come through tightly packed for

Greg Martin placed 6th, Finn Rafferty 9th, Archie Durham 10th, Will Sweeney 12th, George Day 13th, Louie King 17th and Ryan Carroll 20th convincingly wrapped up the team title.

The senior girls also saw two of our members representing North East with Kiera Atkinson taking the title with sister Kayleigh in the bronze medal placing. Lucy Nuttall with her 5th place led Mid Essex with Sophie McCall 9th, Larna Morgan 10th, Isabella Calabritio 16th,

Alexa Mann 18th and Elsie King 19th. Although North East led the stakes with five home

Mid Essex  sixth runner clinched the issue.

The intermediate boys provided our only `home` winner as Jacob Hurrell took the title by leading the way from two Southend boys and whose team were comfortable winners.

Mid Essex found Max Stephenson 6th, Josh Eida 19th, Ben Smith 28th, Austin Kelly 29th, Warren Diss 31st, Dyla Robbins 32nd and Sam Crane 33rd. Tying on points with West Essex but taking second place by virtue having their sixth scorer home first.

No such issue with the intermediate girls as Mid Essex placed six in the first ten, Evie Warn of the Brentwood club led them home with her second place, followed by Daisy Stollery 3rd, Lottie Wilkin 4th, Isla Widdowson 5th, Harriet Matthews 8th and Sienna Shipton 10th whilst in contention for scoring places were Bethan Davies 11th and Jemimah Knightbridge 15th.

It was another huge success for Mid Essex in the junior girls with all nine runners in the first thirteen home. Brentwood's Summer Smith lifted the title for Havering with our Ezra Harrold placing second for Castle Point. Ava King 3rd then led Mid Essex with Erin Kelly 4th, Heidi Woodley 5th, Frankie Phillips 7th, Amelie Shipton 8th, Emmie Lole 9th, Missy Tiller 10th, Hetty Harrison 11th and Isobel Eida 13th.

It was also first team for the junior boys and a third placed individual medal for Jacob Parrott. Backing up came Fred Ferman 4th, Joel Delaney 7th, Zac Thomas 18th, Will Hughes 19th and Zac Johnson 20th..                  

YES -  WHAT A DAY FOR OUR YOUNG LOCAL ATHLETES.

It will be a big day for some 20 of the above boys and girls with selection for Essex to contest the English Schools at the Pontefract Race Course, Yorkshire on 16th March.

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Report written and compiled by R0y Meadowcroft

Southern Success for our Juniors

Two South of England titles at the Lee Valley Centre where the under 13, 15 and 17 championships took place.

On the track Sam Steadman after winning his heat of the 300m in 39.30s finished a full two seconds in front of his opponents in 38.05s for the under 15 title. At under 17 level Amelie Scott again showed her ability in the triple jump going out to 11.10m and claiming the gold medal. Amelie also contested the 60m hurdles going through heats (8.96s), semi (9.06s) to eventually place 4th in the final in 9.14s. Also reaching this final with times of 8.99s, 9.07s and 9.16s Sophie Catchpole finished in 5th place whilst just missing out of a medal in the 400m with 62.02s being fourth. Not missing out however was Matilda Hewitt as she came up with 12.79m in the shot putt for second place.  At under 15 level Amy Pugsley and Chelsea Clarke could not be separated in the high jump at 1.55m - both thereby coming away with silver medals having placed 4th (5.08m) and 6th (4.89m) in the long jump. Back to the under 17`s and it was a busy meeting for Ed Hughes being second in the hurdles (8.44s), and fifth in both high jump (1.75) and long jump (5.99). On the track Harry Wright came up with third in the 800m in 2m 06.65s with Thomas Carter not far adrift in 2m 08.10s                                                                                                        Having moved up an age level Sam Wright tackled the under 20 multi events at the English Championships in Sheffield placing sixth in the heptathlon with a pb of 4717 points. Best placed event was the hurdles won in 8.30s with other events 60m 7.20s, 1000m 3m 04.97s, high jump 1.93m, pole vault 2.90m, long jump  6.72m and shot putt 11.21m

Report written by Roy Meadowcroft