Author: RSCAC Admin

Our women’s cross country team put in their best performance of the season to win the latest Midland Women’s XC League race at Droitwich. On a muddy course (thanks Andrea for sending in a photo of the team’s muddy legs as proof!) everyone ran superbly to beat the 35 other teams including all the best clubs and Universities in the region.

As usual there was a high quality field, with the race won by 2013 ITU Triathlon World Champion Non Stanford (yes – you read that right!). Katie Ingle was not far behind, finishing in a superb 3rd place. Megan McBrien was 13th, Larna Partridge 21st, Andrea Deathridge 32nd and Amy Johnson 65th. Fantastic running by everyone!

The results are available on the Midland Counties website. Photos taken by Dave Payne are available on the Mudrunner Photography FLICKR page.

Fiona Ellis started the indoor season in record breaking form. She used her trademark lightening fast start to set a new W35 club record of 8.33. This breaks Sandra McDonald’s record of 8.40 set in 1998.

Nick Pryce and Amiyah Forrest were also in action. Nick ran 7.08 in his first outing of the season, whilst Amiyah ran a PB of 8.31. Results

The senior men put in a solid performance to finish 4th in the latest league match at Wyken Croft Park. The result moves the club up to second in the league with one match remaining. The B team again had a great day winning the B team race – the points score would have been sufficient to place them 12th out of 18 teams in the overall race. With 19 runners competing it shows the great strength in depth of the squad.

Ollie Harradence was the first runner home finishing in 6th place. Other standout performances came from Paul Davey and Tom Chew, who both recorded their best finishes for the club. The results are available on the Birmingham XC website, whilst the individual placings are below:

• A team – Ollie Harradence (6th) Nick Corker (10th), Fred Tremblay (42nd), Paul Davey (44th), Simon Corker (48th) and Rob Andrew (49th)
• B team – Tom Chew (50th), Chris Taylor (54th), Colin McAuley (69th), Steve Marklew (90th), John Fletcher (104th) and Vikram Balachandar (105th).
• C team – Russell Simpson (114th), Dave Liddall (130th), Subodh Dave (162nd), Simon Ralph (191st), Matt Stenson (194th) and Paul Jenkins (211th).

It was also Vikram’s last race for the club for some time as he moves to Brussels at the start of February. Vikram has been an important member of the XC and Athletics team over the last couple of years, travelling up from London to compete – we wish him all the best!

The next race is at Coundon Park, Coventry on 8 February. Let’s have another great turnout.

We had a couple of runners testing out the mud at the Staffordshire XC Championships at Stafford Common. Larna Partridge was 7th overall in the combined U20s and senior/vets women’s race, whilst Libby Dunne was 15th in the U15 girls race. Staffordshire XC results

A fantastic day of cross country racing at Halesowen saw Royal Sutton athletes return with a good haul of medals and trophies. On a really testing hilly course with lots of thick mud there were victories for Katie Ingle and Georgia Curry. Megan McBrien finished in 2nd place in the U20 women’s race, whilst 11 year old Alex Stapleton had an outstanding run to finish 3rd in the U13 boys race. There were further individual medals for Andrea Deathridge and Nick Corker in the Masters events. There were also team medals for the U13 girls, U15 girls, U17 men and Masters men.

Lots of runners recorded top 10 finishes which should ensure that there are plenty of Royal Sutton athletes competing at the Inter County Championships in March. Well done everyone!

There are some great photos taken by Marc Kirsten on our FLICKR page.

The full list of Royal Sutton medal winners and a link to the results is below:

Warwickshire XC results

Katie Ingle (U20 women)	Megan McBrien (U20 women)	Alex Stapleton (U13 boys)
Georgia Curry (U15 Girls)	U13 girls team (Mel Adkins, Caitlin White and Ellen Humpherston)	Andrea Deathridge (Masters Women)
	U15 girls – (Georgia Curry, Grace Stirland, Lois West)	Nick Corker (Masters Men)
		U17 men (Shaun Evans, Jerome Austin, Max Sellers)
		Masters men (Nick Corker, Simon Corker, Rob Andrew, Fred Tremblay)

Congratulations to Katie Ingle and Georgia Curry who had fantastic victories at the Warwickshire County Championships today. Full results and report to follow….