7 Trafford AC athletes will be representing their county at the English Schools Cross Country Championships at Sefton Park, Liverpool next month.

 

They gained their vests by finishing in the top 8 in their age groups at the Greater Manchester Schools Cross Country Championships at a windswept Heaton Park last weekend.

 

However, arguably the best performance of the day by a Trafford athlete came from Jay Hutchinson in winning the Minor Boys race, an age group not catered for at English Schools level. On a hilly, muddy course Jay gradually worked his way through a field of 54 athletes to win by 3 seconds. On the same course, Daisy Atkiss 12th and Martha McCormack 15th, ran well in the Minor Girls race.

 

The Junior Boys raced over 4k and the extra distance gave Charlie Stanway, the youngest in the race, to use his fitness and stamina to gain an excellent 5th place and earn his first county vest.  Following him home were Charlie Atkiss 14th, Alex Holroyd 19th, Josh Watson 20th and James Walton 28th. In the Junior Girls race, Freya Griffiths ran a great race to finish 18th with Imogen Davenport 44th.

 

Jack McNicol finally seems to be getting back to a good level of fitness after illness problems when finishing 4th in the Inter Boys event and qualifying for his 3rd English Schools on the country. Behind him we had Tom Bentall 17th, Louie McCormack 21st and Ned Silvey 25th. Caitlin Doohan put in a gutsy performance to finish 6th in the Inter Girls race and gain her 2nd County vest. Also running well on this tough 4k course were Olivia Russell 13th, Sinead O'Driscoll 16th, Lila Wainwright 24th, Amy Nunn 31st and Marina Guardascione 44th.

 

At Senior Boys level, Trafford athletes featured prominently. Cynog Williams had a great race to finish a close 2nd on a demanding 7k course. Also making the team close behind him were Joe Bentall 5th (winning his 5th consecutive County vest), Alex Bailey 6th and Lewis Royle 7th. Seb Patrick was 12th and Alfie Vesey Barnes 15th.  Our sole representative in the Senior Girls race was Rebecca Young coming in 14th.

 

The Greater Manchester Primary Schools Championship results from the same venue haven't yet been published but featured good runs from Trafford athletes.

 

The County qualifiers at Heaton Park will be joined by Bradley Giblin who finished 4th at Inter Boys level at the Cheshire Schools Championships.

 

Most of the runners will be returning to Heaton Park on Saturday for the final fixture in the Manchester Area Cross Country League.

 

Neil Canham