Mud helps Harry stick at it for a medal win in career-best run
AN outstanding performance by Harry Maxwell was the highlight for Team Bath AC at the Saucony English Cross Country Championships.
The 15-year-old produced the best performance of his young career to date to win the bronze medal in the under 15 boys’ race held on a tough course at Parliament Hill, Hampstead Heath, London on Saturday.
“It was really great to podium on such an iconic course that really suited me and my style of racing with lots of mud and hills, making it a really fun tough course,” said Maxwell.
“I still believe there’s more to come especially after a tough training camp with the southwest academy the day before. I was certainly delighted with my performance.”
In a high-quality field of over 400 runners from across the country Maxwell was always to the fore and showed great tactical awareness and determination to stick with the top group even if eventual winner Robert Price (Vale Royal) eventually pulled well clear for victory.
Maxwell finished six seconds behind Aiden Collier (Chiltern) in second and had a six seconds advantage over his nearest rival.
“I would consider this my best performance to date considering the magnitude and quality of the field, despite coming second at Cardiff Cross Challenge,” added Maxwell.
Maxwell wasn’t the only young Team Bath runner to impress in the biggest event of the season. Toby Loughlin has already enjoyed a terrific season but like Maxwell he saved his best for the main event as he finished 10th in the under 13 boys’ race.
“There were brilliant performances from both Harry (coach Kevin Brunt) and Toby (coach Mark Thomas),” said Team Bath AC’S senior endurance coach Paul King.
In the under 20 women’s race Freya Spruit did well to make the top 50 in 47th with clubmate Ella Treby 90th and India Ibbotson 92nd while in the under 20 men’s age group Alex Parsons battled to a highly creditable 36th place.
The senior men’s race saw a huge turn-out of over 2,000 runners from 132 scoring clubs so Team Bath can feel considerable satisfaction at finishing 37th overall.
“Although some were a little disappointed with their finish position, collectively it was a great team performance and I had to remind them it was the English National Cross Country Championships after all!” added King.
Aidan Daniel was the club’s leading scorer in 310th place with Dan Jones (405), Tom Dudden (523), Brian Glynn (550), James Donald (601) and Chris Maxwell – proud father of Harry – completing the scoring in 698th place. Thomas Davies (826), Tim Hill (1004), Aiden Wiffen (1006) and Malcolm Treby (1271) also ran.
Only three senior women made the trip to the capital with Amy Glynn finishing a creditable 361st supported by Phillippa Spruit (591) and Lisa Bennett (662).
■ Racing at the Bourton 10k, Team Bath’s Cath Dale finished second in the veterans over 55s age group and 22nd overall (42:58) while Peter Grist clocked 33:23 in 14th position.
■ Ben Holding continued his preparations for the Manchester Marathon next month with a personal best of 1hr 22mins 01secs, carving over a minute off his previous best, in the Wokingham half marathon.
■ Following his excellent form this winter, Justin Davies received an invite to compete at the UK Athletics Indoor Championships and he showed up well to finished fifth in his heat and first junior in a time of 3mins 49.81secs.
■ The athletics coverage in the Chronicle is sponsored by Running Bath