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Twenty-Five Stevenage and North Herts members made the journey to Shotover Hill, Oxford on Saturday for the first Cross Country League Match since December 2019. The journey in pouring rain had team members a bit worried, but by the time the races started it was a beautiful day and quite hot. The Chiltern League is even bigger now as a result of other cross-country leagues being unable to run post-COVID. 21 Clubs were taking part; this is serious competition.

It was great to see so many new Club members taking part. It was quite an intimidating occasion, most had not experienced anything like this and many hadn’t even run a cross-country race before. The races are all far longer than anything on the track, the course was demanding, taking most age groups into the Chiltern Hills and up one particularly long, steep hill – not for the faint hearted! Seniors got the opportunity to scale it twice!

The team did particularly well and there were some fine individual performances. A special mention must go to Hazel Spitzer U11 in her first competition who completed the 2km course in 7.46mins to finish 3rd. U11 Oliver Rose was 5th in the boy’s race with team mate James Cook 23rd.

Competing for the seniors in Division 2, Adam Searle finished the 8.9km in 37.15 mins for 33rd while M40 Bob Whitten, returning from injury was 134th. The Ladies race was over 5.8km and in spite of being ill earlier in the week Alex Gates finished in 16th in 26.43 mins. U17 Boys William Galliford and Isaac Whitten finished their 5.8km course in 9th and 12th positions in 21.42mins and 22.28 mins respectively. U17 Amelie Hobbs finished 11th in 26.22 mins over the 5km course. The U15’s ran over 4km. Top finishing was Jack Thompson in 13th 15.43 mins with Thomas Redfern 21st and Harrison Lund 25th. The team finished 6th. Abigail Manson led the girls home finishing 4th in 16.26mins, Charlotte Livingstone was 19th, Lilly Ash 21st, Alessia Payton 22nd, Imogen Rose 23rd and Molly Allen 25th. The team finished 4th. U13 Jake Trevelyan finished the 3km course in 10th with Matthew Thompson 11th – times 12.55 and 12.57mins respectively. Esme Searle led the U13 girls home in 6th 13.15mins with Lauren Griffin 7th 13.33mins, Jane Griffin 14th, Gracie Hall-Watts 15th and Hannah Cook 17th. The team finished 4th.

It was pleasing to see how everyone gave their best, supported each other and seemed to enjoy it (maybe after the event). It was a great experience and if this is how the team started the season, then with more training under their belts we should expect great things from this talented group of athletes.

Photos by Barry Cornelius ( https://www.oxonraces.com/photos/2021-10-16-oxford/ )

On Saturday, Stevenage and North Herts AC athlete Jessica Astill finished off her season by competing in her first international competition, the SIAB schools home international. She was selected to compete for England after finishing second in the u17 girls 300m at the English national schools’ finals back in July. Firstly, Jess finished fourth in the individual 300m in a time of 40.36 seconds. Later on in the day, Jess was part of the England team when they broke the national record for the 4x300m, winning the race in 2 minutes 37 seconds. This sees the end of a fantastic season for Jess, which after considerable training disruption due to lockdown, has seen her win 2 national medals.

Also, out in action this weekend was some of the club’s road runners. Competing at the Standalone 10k, including the Herts veteran’s county championships. The highest finisher of the day was Chris Westcott, who finished in 11th position overall, and 4th in the V40 age group in a time of 36 minutes and 19 seconds. Next was Trevor Mason, who finished overall 126th and 18th in the V50 age group in 46 minutes and 8 seconds, and lastly Tony Carolan was 448th and 31st in the V60 age group in 58 minutes and 36 seconds.

Overall, this weekend saw a triumphant end to the track season, as our athletes now look towards the road and cross-country season in the coming months.

Chris Westcott claimed the Senior County 10k Road Championships with a 3rd place finish in the Stevenage 10k on Sunday. Running comfortably to plan as practice for Standalone, Chris was 3rd across the line, claiming the Veterans (40+) race title as well as the County Gold. Starting and finishing in Hampson Park, the event was superbly organised by Stevenage Striders and a very enjoyable local race.

Graham Spicer also completed the course, finishing in 174th position (44th over 50).

Photo courtesy of Ask Physio

Stevenage and North Herts Athletic Club Championships and Open competition took place at Ridlins Stadium on Saturday. Club athletes either participated in the Championship (3 events of their choice – a Minithon) or just did one or two events in the Open. The weather was kind and the technology worked – both photo finish and EDM were in use. Many Club athletes took the opportunity to post season’s best and personal best performances and a number had a go a new event.

The overall Women’s Club Champion was U20 Libby Taylor – SP, DT and HT (8m38, 24m82 and 45m77) with Senior Shannon in 2nd and U17’s Annabelle Howells and Aimie Taylor in 3rd. Senior Dylan Baines took the Men’s title – 100m, HJ and JT (11.74, 1m75 and 27m39) with U17 Will Galliford in 2nd and U20 Ed Laws in 3rd.

In the younger age groups, there were wins for U11 Priscilla Nethmi Tibenderana and Oliver Rose, U13 Georgia Sutcliffe and Horatio De-Vyott, U15 Kyle Gall Gray and Lucy Baverstock.

Three of the Clubs Jumps/Hurdles Squad opted to keep U17 Isaac Whitten company in the last event of the day, the 1500m Steeplechase – a great way to cool down! Barrier clearances techniques however provided the best photo opportunities of the year, with U17 400m hurdler Jake Sutton having an early bath. Joined by Ed Laws and Jamie Joseph they finished a clear 2 minutes behind Isaac who only got his feet wet. Photos by Michael Joseph and Paul Pickard should be entered for the COMET Sports Photograph of the Year.

Full results and photos on the website.

The Winter Fixture List – Cross Country and Indoors will be on the website mid-October.

Stevenage and North Herts U15 Athletes Jamie Timms and Bobby Pitman were in action at Bedford at the English Schools Athletic Association Combined Events Championships on Saturday. Representing Hertfordshire and joined by Noah Franklin (Dacorum and Tring), the team finished the day in third place with a total point score of 7,207. Jamie and Bobby both recorded PB performances in the first event the 80m Hurdles with 12.44 (Jamie) and 12.59 (Bobby). The Shot followed with throws of 10m02 Bobby and 8m43 Jamie, both being PBs. The long jump saw a PB for Bobby 5m26 and a jump 5m29 for Jamie. A high jump PB for Jamie 1m59 followed with Bobby clearing 1m38. Both boys finished the day with strong runs in the 800m Jamie 2.19.39 and Bobby 2.21.65 – both PBs. Total point scores of 2408 and 2296 saw the boys finish in 14th and 18th places out of the 40 boys competing. Coaches Norma Harris and Barry Mainstone had a great day supporting the boys and look forward to seeing both of them competing in the Octathlon next summer.