Midland Cross Country Championships (24/01/2015)

Tony Phillips provides his view of the racing at Wollaton on Saturday.

"Tipton Harriers finished as silver medallists in the Senior Men's event and the Junior Men won gold medals.

The championships were held in the picturesque Wollaton Park, Nottingham, with the dominating Elizabethan Wollaton Hall the background for a 12k undulating and winding course, consisting of testing slopes, fast flat grassland surfaces, and soft muddy patches. This location was my playground as a boy, and later part of a training course with Notts. A.C.

After the 12k race Tipton finished as runners up to a dominant Notts. AC. who won by a wide margin. Mick Robinson their team manager, and event organiser, must have had the whip out to go along with his enthusiasm to get all his best runners out on the day, together with many non-scorers to support them.

The Tipton team presented a valiant display to finish second to the formidable team. Tipton were led by Adrian Holliday who gave a  determined performance, as he had done in the last league race. He was always up with the leading group, 10th on the first lap of four, then moved up to 7th and 8th places and eventually finished 8th after a great effort in 37 mins. 29 secs., only 28 secs. behind the winner. Ian Mitchell also ran a committed and good race to finish 16th in 38 mins. 23 secs.; he ran consistently in 15th to 17th place throughout.  Ian Williams continued his recent improved form by finishing 33rd after efforts that placed him 29th on the third lap. Liam Roberts and Oz Ellis finished close together in 47th and 48th positions. Liam started with an advantage over Oz in the early laps with Liam in the 30's and Oz the 50's, but with Liam losing places to the 40's Oz made efforts over the last lap to almost catch him. Chris Gillespie completed the count with his best run to date to finish 57th, after his promising league run his performance improved further, showing that there is more to come from the newest Tipton Harrier. Harvey Maguire returning to top level running ran his hardest to finish just outside the count in 77th place. Sean Barnsley continued his senior experience with a commendable run in 109th position, out of 456 finishers.

SeniorMenMidlands2015Left to right, Ian Williams, Peter 'Oz' Ellis, Liam Roberts, Chris Gillespie, Ade Holliday

The U20 Junior team went one better than the senior runners to win gold medals, with the team that showed encouraging performances in the last league race. Gareth Griffiths in 9th place was outstanding, Luke Vine 16th made another step upwards, Jacob Anson' 25th,  consolidated his form, and Tom Acha in 35th position, supported the team and gave his best' to enable the team to finish first.  

Under20MenMidlands2015Left to right, Luke Vine, Gareth Griffiths, Jacob Anson, Tom Acha

The men's winning of gold and silver medals gave the club a great day out, and continued the club's great record in cross country running. It should give other age groups the incentive to compete in the higher level events."

Photos

Results

Senior Men

Senior Women

U20 Men

U20 Women

U17 Men

U17 Women

U15 Boys

U15 Girls

U13 Boys

U13 Girls