Toby and Reece Selected for Yorkshire Team
The annual Yorkshire Cross Country Championships were held at Lightwater Valley theme park, a well organised day with around 900 athletes competing over 10 separate age-group events. These championships are used to select runners to represent Yorkshire in the inter-county championships at Loughborough later this year – the first 8 finishers in each race qualifying for selection. Ripon Runners was represented by 16 juniors and 9 senior men. The weather delivered perfect race conditions – mild, dry and still. Although the ground was wet, the grass just about held together throughout the day. The course was a well designed multi-lap system, twisting and undulating, including a few short climbs and drops, tight double-back corners as well as a traditional muddy hill to scramble up.
Ripon Runner’s Toby Osman and Reece Dalton both qualified for Yorkshire selection. Toby raced in the competitive U17 men’s field, and he made a creditable attempt to win the race from the off, eventually taking 3rd overall, only a few seconds from a win. Reece’s U20s men’s category started simultaneously with the senior men’s race, but still managed to claim an impressive 6th overall, holding off some serious competition in the fight for the critical top few places for selection.
All Results:
U13 Girls, 2600m, 100 finishers, winning time 8.54
Ella Foster, 24th, 10.04
Marnie Scatchard, 47th, 10.39
Lucy-Mae Musgrave, 71st, 11.16
Millie Lock, 72nd, 11.16
U13 Boys, 2600m, 79 finishers, winning time 8.30
Tom Cave, 25th, 9.30
Fred Cooper, 63rd, 10.20
U15 Girls, 3800m, 63 finishers, winning time 13.40
Mena Scatchard, 17th, 15.20
Phoebe Hall, 28th, 15.55
Hannah Cave, 43rd, 16.45
U15 Boys, 3800m, 66 finishers, winning time 13.47
Archie Lawson, 26th, 15.47
Ben Rickard, 59th, 17.58
Sam Maddison, 64th, 19.28
U17 Women, 4350m, 32 finishers, winning time 16.17
Chloe Dalton, 19th, 19.39
Libby Rickard, 27th, 20.43
U17 Men, 5850m, 40 finishers, winning time 20.01
Toby Osman, 3rd, 20.15
U20 Men, 7800m, 21 finishers, winning time 27.15
Reece Dalton, 6th, 28.24
Senior Men’s race account (by Simon Cave)
In typical XC style, we stripped down to our race gear with only 15 mins to go and left our stuff in a pile of plastic bags near some trees! We took a sociable warm-up and all decided to avoid race tactics and to just get on with it. The start line was a whole field width of 60 pens (1 pen per team). The pens were only 1 person wide, so each team’s runners had to line up, directly behind one another, to start. Each race had the same starting process where all runners must assemble at the 5-minute gun. The race referees checked the start line and then there was a tense, almost silent, 5-minute wait before the start gun. What followed next was 60-seconds of athletic madness – an all out sprint along a narrowing funnel to a tight muddy corner around 75m away. The front runners were forced to run like gazelles being chased by a lion, or risk being run over and spiked. At the opening corner, we were hard on the brakes and almost came to a stop. After a few seconds of shouting and clashing elbows, we were out on the wide grassy course, barrier tape on each side. The next 500m allowed everyone to recover from the frantic start and switch to race pace. The ground was soft and the grass was very spongy, which sapped energy on every step. Plenty of shouts of encouragement around the course and a healthy volume of spectators enhanced the race experience. Having scrambled ‘the wall’ 5 times, we all finished absolutely spent and agreed it was tougher than it looked on paper. Best sprint finish goes to Ian ‘Swinstar’ – with an unstoppable final 200m! We’ll be back next year for more. Highly recommended.
Senior Men, 10400m, 287 finishers, winning time 33.47
Simon Cave, 125th, 41.49
Joe Lofthouse, 166th, 43.48
James Boddy, 183rd, 44.36
John Chatwin, 186th, 44.47
Ben Imeson, 196th, 45.41
Trevor Schofield, 213th, 47.06
Michael Hernandez, 245th, 49.75
David Ritson, 256th, 51.16
Ian Swinscoe, 265th, 53.10