There were two team golds & a team silver, and a pair each of individual silver & bronze medals at the Essex Cross Country Champs hosted by the club at a very wet & muddy Stubbers course on Saturday.  This brought the medal tally to ten, across the two days of the championships - adding to the first leg that took place at Claybury in December.

The U13 girls set up a successful day in the first race off by contributing three medals. Eleanor Bounds and Rebecca O'Neill battled with eventual winner Jessica Judd from Thurrock and earned individual silver & bronze medals. They combined with Rebecca Stanley (11th) & Shannon Sullivan (12th) for team gold, beating Thurrock by a massive 41 point margin. Seven other club athletes competed, with the B team of Emma McAuliffe (15th), Sharmila Golan (22nd), Nicola Peachey (25th) and Amanda Blaxland (26th) placing fifth, only 11 points off a medal position. Hannah Bloy had her best run of the winter in 33rd ahead of Deborah Knight (37th) and Jessica Seekings (38th). 

The U15 girls also came away with team gold.  As in the Essex league the club's top trio contested the early lead with Colchester's Laura Hillyard who went away to claim a worthy gold medal.   Jennifer Holland got the better of her club colleague's and held on for silver, while Zoey Littlechild finished fourth and Sidnie Sales fifth. There was then an anxious wait until Emma Fox's vital 26th place secured team gold, while Michelle Lovell was 30th.

Any hopes of a senior women's team medal disappeared with the withdrawal of in-form Lauren Deadman (Achilles injury) & Harriet Scott (unwell). That left international Faye Fullerton to challenge for individual medals against strong opposition from Thurrock's experienced Jo Wilkinson and Basildon's Alexa Joel on the difficult 8km course that was slippery after several hours of rain and four previous races. Faye found the going tough but kept going to win individual bronze, while behind her Robyn Matson, still an U20, came through strongly to place 13th while Megan Foley completed the course despite falling, finishing 36th.  The fourth scoring place went to Linda Smith who just got the better of Angela Thompson in the latter stages, in 82nd and 83rd, with the team eighth.

In the senior men's event Rob Warner skipped over the mud to produce a fantastic top ten finish to lead the team home in great style, while Trevor Keys produced another strong run to come in one place back in 11^th. Jason Lendon, who seems to get stronger with every outing, finished 17^th. and Matt Bland, one of the mainstays of the team, continued his fine form in 20^th. Steve Rand suffered in the treacherous conditions but battled gamely to take 27^th while Gavin Maley in his first outing this season showed determination to take 33^rd and complete the scoring six  who finished just 11 points behind Chelmsford to earn a well-deserved silver medal. The senior men had such a good turnout that they also had a second team of six, with Ian Anthony leading them home in 52^nd not far in front of Neill Collins 55^th, Martin Chester 60^th and Paul Berrett 62^nd. Graham Pritchard 74^th and Chris Coates 96^th completed the second team, with 13th man Tony Collins finishing 117^th in a field of 177.

There was disappointment however for the U13 and U15 boys, both of who are challenging for the Essex League title. The U13 Boys high hopes of team medals melted away when they lined up without their top three Essex League scorers Ryan O'Mahoney (holiday), Tyler Bennett (unavailable) and Jonathan Seekings (unwell). Six club runners took part with Thomas Davis first home in 19th, Luke Overton (24th), Adam Edwards (29th) and Jake Nelson (34th) combining to finish a lowly seventh.

The U15 Boys similarly were missing key runners Michael Jones and John Whitehead and finished fifth. The scoring four finished in close order as Daniel Shanney (13th), Jamie Buckley-Stanton (14th), Callum Sutton (16th) and Thomas Shanney (22nd) missed out on a team medal by 10 points. The B team of Lewis Ball (27th), Jack Walden (28th), Chris Da Costa (29th) and Callum Hockley (38th) were sixth.

Under 15 Girls:  2nd - Jennifer Holland 17:05; 4th - Zoey Littlechild 17:18; 5th - Sidnie Sales 17:21; 26th - Emma Fox 19:57; (Team 1st - 37pts) 30th - Michelle Lovell  20:27

Photos below Lesley Richardson www.rikko2photo.co.uk