The Greater Manchester Clubs x-country championships is traditionally the last x-country race before Christmas. Top 4 in each race are selected to represent Greater Manchester in next March's inter-counties x-country with those finishing 5th to 8th likely to be selected as one of the 8 runners in the team, unless an athlete missing wants to run in the inter-counties and shows good form in January/February. This years course was again in Leigh, next to the athletics track. The course is quite flat, but a mixture of fast straight sections and twisty muddy sections makes it a testing course.

First up was the U13 Boys 3km 1 lap race. Tommy Calland made the Greater Manchester team last year with a great run and was always up near the lead group and with a good finish he secured 5th place. Thomas Fotheringham is an improvng athlete and gave it a real go at making the top 8 fin8shing just 13 seconds behind 12th overall.  Making a tremendous start to their running careers Stan Barber and Emanuele Calisti finishing 16th and 17th and securing bronze team medals.

Over the same distance Cora Black is a first year U13 Girl but races with great experience, she set off close to the top 8, moving up to and clear in 6th in the later stages, to join Tommy Callland in the Greater Manchester team. Isolde Powell who prefers the hillier courses was not far behind in 14th.

In the U15 Boys race Arlo Mander-Tullius finished 9th last year just missing out in a sprint finish on making the Greater Manchester team. This year Arlo was always with the lead group, taking the lead in the closing stages to make sure he secured the win. Behind Arlo there was a big group of Trafford runners all trying to make the top 8 runners. As the pace increased 6 runners were together from 5th to 8th and it was the surprise package Isaac Bury who came through for Trafford to finish 6th. This shows great potential for an athlete new to running with only a few parkruns behind him. Youngster Thomas Daly just missed out in 9th but may well make the GM Team as first reserve. Logan Grocott's rapid improvement over the last 9 months saw him reach another high finishing 10th and that secured the silver medals for the Trafford team. Ned Farncombe having picked up a football injury this summer is another one to watch as he came through to finish 13th. With Joe Thomas 16th, Charlie Congdon 22nd and Sam Ingleby-Castleton 23rd, Trafford’s B team did well.

Special mention to Mya Black in the U15 girls who is looking stronger on the x-county races finishing 20th.

In the U17 Men’s race there was a large initial group broke clear and with a continuous good pace this group gradually whittled down until it was just Fin Dobson Emmas sat on the shoulder of long time leader Chris Parikh (Manchester Harriers). Fin always looked like he had another gear and sprinted clear to claim his first Greater Manchester xc title. The surprise of this race was Evan Lewis who hung on to the lead two to claim the bronze medal. With Tio Austin (5th) and Adrian White (7th) claiming their places on the Greater Manchester team it also meant that Trafford won the team prize. Ben Gardner (8th) and Evan Horwell (13th) were up in the lead group but fell back in the second half with Ben again suffering stomache pains. Zach Rose came through in the second half closing to finish 11th and helping the Trafford 'B' team to pick up the team silver medals.

The U17 Women's race was held jointly with the U20 women making it a better race but not easy to see who was in which race. After the first lap Rachel Bowden looked to be going well in the top 8 with Sarah Smith not far behind in about 10th, but Rachel struggled in the second lap after a recent illness dropping to 9th whilst Sarah finished strongly to claim 6th and her first ever Greater Manchester vest.  With Ava Evans 13th and Genny Jackson 14th the team finished 3rd overall. Ahead of the U17 women Ava Clough chased the leader hard all the way to finish 2nd U20 and in a good quality field.  Issy Pearson again made the Greater Manchester team finishing 8th.

In the U20 Men’s race it was a relatively new runner Bryn Lawrence (Bury) who set the pace with Harrison Stokes (Salford) and Jay Hutchinson following. The 3 pulled well clear finishing in that order. With Luke Carrington 5th and Alfie Bundy 7th Trafford finished 1st team.

In the Senior races Will Parker ran well finishing 8th with Jacob Fletcher in 35th and in the women's race Louise Ambler was 15th and Louise Mangan 18th.

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