WSEH AC Top Team at South of England Cross Country Championships

The 8 medals (3 gold (1 individual and 2 team), 3 silver (2 individual and 1 team) and 2 team bronze) won by WSEH AC athletes at the 2022 SEAA Cross Country Championships held at new venue Beckenham Place Park on Saturday 29^th January, put the club at the top of the medal table ahead of Aldershot Farnham & District with 6 medals.

The 1^st gold medal of the day came from Jake Meyburgh who was a clear winner in the U13 Boys’ race. Excellent runs by Thibault Mingret (running in his 1^st ever club race) in 13^th, James Farley in 31^st and Finn McKay in 50^th rewarded them with the bronze team medal. Aaron Shiel was not far behind in 59^th, Blas Rivero-Stevenet 66^th and Ollie Bedford 132^nd.

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Ella Davey, another newcomer to this level of competition raced to a brilliant 2^nd place in the U15 Girls’ event, moving through from 4^th in the last 800m.  With Eloisa Symonds in 34^th, Abigail Farley in 40^th and Stephanie Massie in 58^th, the team took another well-deserved bronze medal. Also running were Aashni Manek who finished 82^nd and Ana Passos who was 102^nd.

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At the front from the gun, Luke Birdseye also had a fantastic race and finished in 2^nd place, leading the team to the silver medal position with Oliver Emment in 10^th, Frank McGrath 21^st and Sam Nesbitt 43^rd. George Thomas was close behind in 55^th, Toby Spencer 70^th, Josh Mingoia 72^nd, Sam Johnston 87th and Julian Abass 123^rd.

Our next gold medal came in the U17 Women’s race where Rachel Clutterbuck (7^th), Jemima Ridley 12^th, Kiki Webb 17^th and Jess Hatch 20^th finished 43 points ahead of 2^nd placed Crawley. Keshni Manek was not far behind in 34^th, Hannah Woolley 39^th and Millie Murphy 77^th.

Last but definitely not least in the medal tally, the U20 Men’s team took a well-deserved gold with an excellent 8^th place from Sam Hodgson backed up by Liam Stone in 12^th, Raphael Rivero-Stevenet in 14^th and Matty Smith 22^nd. Ross Van Heerde followed in 39^th place, Will Goddard 51^st, Finlay Kirk 52^nd, Jack Campbell 56^th, Luke Hynes 58^th, Jordi Evans-Rodriguez 63^rd and Ben Rowe 67^th.

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Jasmine Young, our only finisher in the U20 Women’s race took a well-deserved 8^th place.

Zoe Allan, with another year to go in this age-group, was our best-placed runner in the U13 Girls’ Race finishing in 16^th position. In addition, Tara Ferguson was 47^th and Zara Davey 123^rd.

Our team of U15 Boys finished in 8^th place with Ben Dewar the 1^st finisher in 33^rd, Callum Welch 43^rd, Guy Branston 70^th, James McSharry 87^th, Nathan Rollins 97^th and Jack Philpotts 100^th.

Alex Barbour showed that she is back to her best with an outstanding 9^th position in a quality Senior Women’s race and with Meg Ormond in 67^th, Izzy Rayner in 90^th and Natalie Thompson in 147^th, the team finished in 9^th place.

In the Senior Men’s race which was the biggest of the day with 685 finishers, the club was sadly not able to field a team but Matthew Clutterbuck had a very good run to finish 102^nd and Alex Webb finished 367^th.

Overall it was a fantastic day out for the club and our best performance ever at these championships. A big thanks go to the coaches of all the athletes (Shireen Higgins, coach to every WSEH runner who finished in the top 10 in their race), Trevor Raggett, Con Milton and Patrick McGrath), assistant coaches, parents and supporters who helped to make it happen.

Full results are available here.