News

And then in the blink of an eye, the club cross-country season was over. This race, the final one of the league this winter, will be remembered as the wet one, coming one day after Storm Eunice. In stunning grounds at Shuttleworth College, there was an excellent turnout once again by athletes of SNHAC. It seemed that our orange and black vests were even more prominent than usual; or perhaps that is because our runners are doing even better now than at the beginning of the season.

The day itself was not without controversy. Congestion entering and exiting the College affecting surrounding public roads as well as parking problems at the venue led to the delay of the start of the Senior Mens’ race and ultimately led to cancellation of the U17 and Junior Men and Senior Women races. This was a real shame, particularly for the athletes, most of whom had been there for a long time and who had trained so hard for this. Even the rain realised the upset and finally relented at this stage!

Partly with this in mind, I am sure that we can all extend our heartfelt thanks to the coaches, marshals, and team managers. These events take an enormous amount of organisation behind the scenes as well as on the day. The Chiltern League and the clubs that host the matches should also be thanked for a brilliant season; it has been wonderful that after a break of two years it was back on. Without all of the volunteers giving up their spare time, nothing would have gone ahead.

But this is primarily about the athletes, and the results from yesterday were as follows:

U11

Girls: Hazel Spitzer – 3rd

Boys: James Cook – 30th

U13

Girls: Lauren Griffin – 7th, Esme Searle – 8th, Jane Griffin – 9th, Gracie Hall-Watts – 11th, Hannah Cook – 12th, Edythe Oughton – 13th

Boys: Aubrey Murray – 1st, Casey Wyatt – 5th, Patrick Thorne – 6th, Harry Thompson – 10th, Matthew Thompson – 12th, Henry Price – 15th

U15

Girls: Abigail Manson – 6th

Boys: Jack Thompson – 13th, Thomas Redfern – 16th, William Toffa – 19th, George Fifield – 21st, Harrison Lund – 23rd

U17

Boys – race cancelled

Senior Men

Adam Searle – 42nd, Bob Whitten – 110th

The U13 boys won our division in the league this year and the U13 girls and U17 men came third – well done to all those teams, we look forward to receiving and distributing the medals! There were also individual medals for Aubrey Murray (silver, U13 boys), Abigail Manson (silver U15 girls) and Esme Searle (bronze 13 girls)

Lastly, several SNHAC athletes have been selected to represent Hertfordshire at the National Inter-Counties or English Schools Cross-country championships in March. Well done to them, it is a fantastic achievement, and we wish them all the best of luck. I am sure that they will do the club and county proud!