Medal agony as Harriers miss out by narrow margin
CHELTENHAM Harriers ladies team put in a superb performance to finish fourth at the Midland Cross Country Championship in Leamington - missing missed out on a medal by the narrowest of margins.
Having finished 10th in the last Midland League Division 1 fixture, Naomi Eaton was looking to break into the top 20 for the first time at these championships.
Her target was never in doubt as she came home in a 14th, with Rachel Underhill two places and 14 seconds behind to give the team a good start.
Bristol were dominating the team event with the silver and bronze medals between the Harriers, Leamington and Birmingham’s BRAT club.
BRAT had their first two runners home in fourth and ninth, whilst Leamington first pair were eighth and 17th.
BRAT had their third scorer in 23rd to look strong contenders for silver, before Laura Smith finished 25th to gain five places on Leamington who were level with the Hareiers team with one scorer remaining.
A Leamington runner came home in 31st to guarantee they pipped the Harriers, with Fee Maycock seventeen seconds behind in 36th place.
BRAT needed a 55th-place finish to equal the Harriers and Eloise Lee came home 53rd so they took bronze with 89 points to Harriers’ 91.
At the Staverton 10 mile road race hosted by CLC Striders, Joe Willgoss was in a three way battle for second place before losing touch with Ryan Bennett (Badgers) and Rob Farley (Bitton) and coming fourth in 57:10.
Mark James, ninth in 59:50, missed out on a veteran win as he closed to within seven seconds of Severn’s James Rose.
Dan Schofield (62:06), Gareth Edwards (62:27), Steve Bradley (68:03), Paul Barnes (71:44) and Leah Hopton (80:57) completed the Harriers contingent.
Five club members made the trip to Wales for the Lliswerry 8 mile road race with Charlie Jones taking fourth place in 43:32 and Dave Aubrey ninth with 44:52.
Nick Holliday finished as second V60 runner home in 51:52 before Roxanne Jones and Caroline Cotterell recorded 55:35 and 56:27.
Ben Price and Alex Doherty produced great performances to finish first and third at the England Duathlon Championship whilst Jonathan Floyd marked his first appearance in a club vest with a win at the Hereford Winter 10k.
Four Harriers ladies claimed parkrun first place finishes with Amber Watson (20:49) making a return to the Cheltenham event where Mark James (17:51) was the first across the line before Tommaso Migliuolo (18:17) in third and James Bingham (18:25) in fifth.
In Tewkesbury, there was success for the Sheppard family as Kaitlyn (19:26) ran a course PB that also earned her fifth overall whilst dad Kevin (17:08) was first overall and sister Chloe (22:46) was the second lady home.
Beth Hawling (18:22) was first lady and eighth overall at Finsbury whilst Rachel See (20:11) led the ladies home at Claisebrook Cove event in Australia.