Dacorum & Tring AC’s junior cross country runners kept up the pace at the fourth leg of the Chiltern League Series in Keysoe, Bedfordshire, posting brilliant results just a week after a successful outing at the Herts and Bucks county championships.
A group of 21 athletes, from the U11 to U15 age groups, made their way up to the Keysoe Equestrian Centre, north of Bedford, to a course famed for its water jump, where all age groups have to negotiate a pool of knee-deep icy water on each lap of the course.
Fresh off his dominating win in last week’s Herts county championships, U15 athlete Sam Burnell (pictured in main photo, above) made it two in a row with another commanding performance at Keysoe.
Anna Fryer, team manager for the event, said that Sam’s win was “superb. He ran an extremely tactical race, in second or third for most of it but when he made the break at the second water crossing, it was totally committed and proved decisive. He entered the water third and came out first with a metre gap!”
Sam had a comfortable victory in the end, and his teammates Joseph Chamberlain (5th), Jack Raine (12th), Jamie Bailey (15th) and Rafael Armstrong (35th) ran hard and well, giving the boys a close second-place finish in the team category, with 127 points to Bedford & County AC’s 132 points – particularly impressive as this was Bedford’s home race and the club was out in full force. The U15 boys maintained their first-place position in the overall team ranking after four matches, ahead of Bedford and Chiltern Harriers, and will need to produce another strong performance in next month’s final at Milton Keynes’ Campbell Park to take home the team trophy.
The U15 girls team also ran strongly on the day, finishing fifth in the team standings out of 14 teams to hold sixth overall after four matches. Grace Hucknall had her best race of the Chiltern season, finishing 13th, with Stella Whitlum close behind in 15th. Katie Mitchell held on to finish 28th, while Emma Cresswell and Jessica Hill crossed the line in 34th and 35th and Lauren Collis was 42nd.
The U13 girls also finished fifth as a team, and maintain a fifth-place ranking in the standings after four matches. Isabelle Jelfs (16th) and Indie Frost (19th) were inside the top-20, while Amy Lane was hot on their heels in 24th, with Beth Moody (31st), Nancie Bateson (43rd) and Poppy Webster (44th) running well in a competitive field.
The U13 boys had just one representative: Tim Fryer had a sprint finish with four other boys and finished 21st overall.
The U11 age groups got to run through the water jump for the first time, adding to a challenging race as both Division 1 and Division 2 clubs are ranked together. Archie Seddon impressed with his eighth place finish in the boys’ race, out of a total of 71 competitors, while Alexia Bede (27th) and Talia Williams (41st) ran well in a field of 70 girls.
Next up for our young cross country squad is the Herts Schools championships at St Albans on February 2nd, followed by the Chiltern League final in Milton Keyes on February 9th and Match 4 of the North West London League in Harrow on the 16th.
Thanks to parent photographers Richard Burnell, Anna Fryer, Roland Seddon, Hollie Bede, Gill Cresswell and Colette Dunne
| EVENT | W35 | W40 | W45 | W50 | W55 | W60 | W65 | W70 | W 75 | W80 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100m | Deb KEENLEYSIDE 13.8 1996 Rebecca REDDING 13.8 2008 | Catherine WOOLFREY 15.7 2000 | Alexis BUNCE 23.4 2017 | Tamara CLARK 17.8 2022 | No Performance | Celia FINDLAY 21.3 2024 | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance |
| 200m | Deb KEENLEYSIDE 28.4 1994 | Catherine WOOLFREY 32.3 2000 | No Performance | Tamara CLARK 36.6 2022 | No Performance | Celia FINDLAY 41.8 2023 | No Performance | Sarah ROBERTS 37.6 2024 | No Performance | No Performance |
| 400m | Valerie PRITCHARD 67.1 2004 | Denise BURFORD 88.9 2017 | No Performance | Tamara CLARK 86.9 2022 | No Performance | Celia FINDLAY 90.8 2024 | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance |
| 800m | No Performance | No Performance | Hannah TURNER 2.39.8 2023 | No Performance | No Performance | Celia FINDLAY 3.18.8 2023 | Sarah ROBERTS 3.18.2 2019 | Sarah ROBERTS 3.10.5 2023 | No Performance | No Performance |
| 1,500m | Geraldine DUNNINGS 6.18.7 1999 | Victoria THORNLEY 6.52.2 2024 | Hannah TURNER 5.26.4 2024 | Catherine DAVIES 5.47.5 2014 | Celia FINDLAY 6.19.4 2019 | Celia FINDLAY 6.20.9 2023 | No Performance | Sarah ROBERTS 6.19.8 2023 | No Performance | No Performance |
| 3,000m | Geraldine DUNNINGS 13.54.7 1999 | Samantha SULLIVAN 12.50.0 2015 | Hannah TURNER 11.18.1 2024 | Hilary NEEDLEMAN 13.57.0 2011 | Celia FINDLAY 13.43.6 2017 | Celia FINDLAY 13.20.8 2024 | No Performance | Sarah ROBERTS 12.27.8 2024 | No Performance | No Performance |
| 5,000m | Esther CHARCHAROS 20.34.5 1998 | Lone LERCHE 20.08.0 2003 | Catherine DAVIES 19.49.0 2011 | Kate RENNIE 17.48.7 2024 | Celia FINDLAY 21.44.7 2018 | Celia FINDLAY 22.08.8 2022 | Sarah ROBERTS 23.21.8 2019 | Sarah ROBERTS 21.48.1 2024 | No Performance | No Performance |
| 1,500m SC | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance |
| 2,000m SC | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance |
| Sprint Hurdles | 100m Hurdles 84.0cm Deb KEENLEYSIDE 16.5 1994 | 80m Hurdles 76.2cm Deb KEENLEYSIDE 13.1 1998 | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance |
| Low Hurdles | 400m Hurdles 76.2cm Valerie PRITCHARD 73.8 2001 | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance |
| High Jump | Natasha BRUNNING 1.50m 2008 | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance |
| Pole Vault | Natasha BRUNNING 3.10m 2010 | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance |
| Long Jump | Natasha BRUNNING 4.85m 2008 | Catherine WOOLFREY 3.90m 2001 | Sarah SULLIVAN 3.64m 2019 | Susan BIGNELL 3.37m 2010 | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance |
| Triple Jump | Natasha BRUNNING 10.83m 2009 | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance |
| Shot Putt | 4kg Deb KEENLEYSIDE 8.71m 1996 | 4kg Barbara BAILEY 6.13m 1989 | 4kg Deb KEENLEYSIDE 8.12m 2004 | 3kg Sylvia FITZWILLIAM 7.11m 1989 | 3kg Deb KEENLEYSIDE 7.08m 2014 | 3kg Celia FINDLAY 5.32m 2023 | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | 2kg Sylvia FITZWILLIAM 4.75m Jarman Fields 04/09/2022 |
| Discus Throw | 1kg Deb KEENLEYSIDE 21.00m 1998 | 1kg Denise COOPER 16.44m 1987 | 1kg Deb KEENLEYSIDE 21.59m 2004 | 1kg Sylvia FITZWILLIAM 15.86m 1992 | 1kg Catherine WOOLFREY 13.50m 2015 | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance |
| Hammer Throw | 4kg Catherine WOOLFREY 15.92m 1999 | 4kg Catherine WOOLFREY 17.10m 2000 | 4kg Catherine WOOLFREY 18.20m 2005 | 3kg Catherine WOOLFREY 20.25m 2010 | 3kg Catherine WOOLFREY 21.01m 2015 | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance |
| Javelin Throw | 600g Deb KEENLEYSIDE 27.26m 1995 | 600g Catherine WOOLFREY 14.21m 2004 | 600g Deb KEENLEYSIDE 24.23m 2004 | 500g Sylvia FITZWILLIAM 16.88m 1989 | 500g Penny WALLDUCK 11.97m 2024 | 500g Celia FINDLAY 8.57m 2023 | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | 400g Sylvia FITZWILLIAM 7.76m Jarman Fields 04/09/2022 |
| Pentathlon | Elizabeth COPLEY 1,774p 2002 | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance | No Performance |
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