The under 13 girls made light of the blustery conditions at Abbey Fields, Colchester on Sunday to win another county gold medal.
On the opening leg Rebecca O'Neill gave the team the flying start they wanted, storming home in first place with her 8:48 clocking. Eleanor Bounds return from illness to extend the lead even further (9:22) and Rachel Sadler kept well ahead of the field with her 9:09 leg to anchor the team to gold. The strength in depth was shown by our B team of Shannon Sullivan (9:58), Emma McAuliffe (9:55) and Rebecca Stanley (9:41) who placed 6th and our C team of Shamila Golan (10:01), Jessica Seekings (10:07) and Deborah Knight (10:47) coming in 9th. Hannah Bloy also ran an 10:13 opener for the D team
In the combined under 15 and under 17 girls' races Zoey Littlechild started the U15 team well coming in 3rd overall (and second in her age group) with a fine 8:35 run. Jennifer Holland brought the girls to first in their race with her 8:37 stage and in the overall event and newcomer Amber Turner impressed on her debut to maintain the team’s gold medal position running 9:49.
The U17 Women’s team of Alex Beard (9:30), Christina Holland (9:33) and Ingrid Deane (9:40) placed fourth in their event.
There was no repeat of last year's clean sweep for the boys' teams who found the going tough against strong opposition and failed to bring home any medals.
An under-strength U13 Boys team (Tyler Bennett – 9.42, Jonathan Seekings – 9:35 and Thomas Davis – 9:35) maintained 6th throughout. The incomplete B team of Michael Kakoulis (10:13) and Andrew Holland (10:54) lacked an anchor leg runner.
The U15 boys' team of Daniel Shanney – 7:47, Callum Sutton – 8:01 & Jamie Buckley-Stanton – 8:11 also finished 6th. Shanney’s fine opener brought them home fifth, Callum Sutton improved one place but Jamie Buckley-Stanton could make no impression on the medals. The B team of Thomas Shanney (8:07), Simon Brown (8:19) and Lewis Ball (8:43) maintained seventh position throughout.
The U17 Men's team of Rob Jones, Daniel Winters and Grant Twist went one place better in 5th. Jones’ fine 7:27 opener kept the medal hopes alive in third but Winters (7:42) slipped back to fifth and the returning Grant Twist (7:55) was unable to improve the placing. Michael Donovan (7:46) and Josh Dunne (8:11) were the incomplete B squad.
External link to
Full Results (pdf)
