A Small Turnout at the Southern XC Relays.

Having come up with success in the Essex and National cross-country relays plus the South of England road relays during the last month it seemed reasonable that CAC would be in the chase for further honours at the Southern cross-country event staged at Wormwood Scrubs, London. How disappointing then to turn up the results to find that only two teams feature, the under 13-year girls finishing in eleventh position with the regular team of Bella Kehoe, Jessica Hobson and Leila Robinson. For the under 17`s it was a promising start with Jorjia March taking the first stage and leading the field home. Now however the team was to include Harriet Matthews and Missy Tiller previously amongst the `B` team and although they came up with good performances were to finish just outside the medals being fourth.

All in all, a disappointing day for it is quite likely some ten teams had been entered at £42 a time. Perhaps the venue had some bearing, and parents did not fancy driving in Sadiq Khan`s London with its driving restrictions, or possibly the coaches and athletes opted out after their national success. One must note that other clubs gave this meeting a miss with fields considerably reduced.

Report written by Roy Meadowcroft.

Medals galore for Chelmsford at the Essex Cross Country Relay Championships.

Medals galore for Chelmsford at the Essex Cross Country Relay Championships staged at Hylands Park, including three sets of the coveted gold whilst silver and bronze were added to the collection.

It was the girls event starting proceedings with all three age groups setting off together and of course the under 17`s - in this case the gold and green of Chelmsford setting the pace leading throughout. The previous week`s road relay champions were forced to make one change with Jorjia March not having Essex qualification ruled out. Ezrah Harrold covered the first circuit in 10m 23s with Amelie Shipton again following out and clocking 10m 52s. Now Lottie Wilkin who could be considered unlucky not to have been in that National win, put in a run of 10m 36s bringing them home well ahead of Havering. It was to be another set of medals in this category with the `B` team of Hetty Harrison 11m 25s, Missy Tiller 11m 45s and Katie Cox 12m 12s taking third place. No surprise that both the under 13 and 15-year races should go to Brentwood having taken National titles seven days previously. Both results however found CAC coming away with silver medals. In the younger age group, we saw Bella Kehoe timed at 12m 22s, Jessica Hobson 12m 26s and Leila Robinson 12m 12s very consistent. To the under 15`s and here Erin Kelly clocked 11m 40s with Lily Sanford following with 11m 05s with Ava King bringing them home with her 10m 57s. Not finished here for the `B`team had Izzy Eida on 11m 20s, Beatrix Cooke 11m 38s and Isla Kehoe 11m 11s taking third place. Strength in is numbers for a `C` team took fifth spot with Frankie Phillips 11m 27s, Orla Martin 11m 43s and Vivien Prelavic 12m 41s.

There were to be four sets of medals from the boys’ event and this time it was to be the under 13`s taking the honours with Mason Sanford clocking 10m 24s with Freddie Blacketer11m 06s and Dylan Law 10m 58s leading them home ahead of SS Athletics and Colchester and Tendering. Arthur Cooke 12m 15s and James Pollard 11m 47s will be hoping a third member will come along to complete a full squad in the future. I gave the honours to the under 13`s with two of them fresh from the under 11`s but it was also a winning performance from the under 15`s with Jamie Gilbey 10m 50s, Josh Humphries 10m 19s and Fred Ferman 10m 09s heading Basildon for top spot. For the `B` team of Khaya Fakazi 10m 54s, Thomas Burgoyne 11m 47s and Joshua Dalton10m 55s it was to be seventh. For the under 17`s they were to take both second and third places behind Havering. The `A` team saw Daniel Pollard timed at 9m 49s, Max Chivers 9m 52s and Austin Kelly 9m 51s that would have meant close packing in an individual race the add in the `B` team with Jacob Parrott 9m 53s, Tom Carter 10m 25s and Joe Delaney 9m 58s it would give an interesting result.

To the senior results and here the men were to follow Colchester Harriers home for silver with Lewis Harknett on 19m 24a, Tom Rehal 20m 11s, Tom Woodward 20m 30s and Ethan Reilly 20m 25s. The women's event also won by the Colchester club ahead of Havering but then Chelmsford took third place for a final set of medals. The team out here saw Rachel Broome 23m 59s, Sophie McCall 25m 40s and Hannah Bolton 23m 19s. Two veterans in each of the over 40`s Will Parrott and David Philipps, and over 50`s Peter Waite and Sam Eida events but lacking further athletes failed to finish.

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Report written by Roy Meadowcroft

CAC Showed Their Class at the National Road Relays.

There was a mass invasion of Birmingham by Chelmsford athletes for the English National Road relay championships as they completed teams in all eight races on the programme and found success for they came back home with coveted gold medals.

It was their under 17-year ladies that were to achieve this as they came out victors over Lincoln and Aldershot having led from the outset. Ezrah Harrold had put in a tremendous run on that first stage as her time of 13 min 16 sec`s was to prove fastest of the event. Amelie Shipton 13m 50s and Jorjia March 13m 41s then left no doubt as to the final result and the satisfaction of heading Aldershot who had edged them out of top spot in the Southern championship title only last month. Showing depth in the club Lottie Wilkin 13m 46s, Emmie Lole 14m 08s and Hetty Harrison 15m 00s brought the `B`team into eighth place whilst Harriet Matthews 15m 05s, Jessica Walker 15m 19s and Niamh Roberts 17m 06s were a creditable 27th - inside of the top half of the field,

Further medals were to come as the under 13-year boys commendable third behind strong London clubs Blackheath and Shaftesbury. Mason Sanford had set them on the way with his 13m 19s and in fifth place setting Freddie Blacketer away only eleven seconds behind leaders Windsor, Slough and Eton. In his first relay race Freddie made up ground and his 13m 39s was to take the lead. Another tackling his first such event Dylan Law came up with 13m 31s eventually to finish third - but a bronze national medal to be proud of.

For the under 15-year girls they were to take a spot just outside the medals being in fourth whilst their `B` team were to be next across the line. The `A` team saw Isla Kehoe on 14m 06s (12th) Ava King 14m 05s into 5th and Erin Kelly 14m 07s to that final place. For the `B` team Lily Sanford 13m 52s had come through in fifth spot, Isobella Eida moved up one with 14m14s whilst Beatrix Cooke 14m41s was to finish fifth, whilst a `C` team of Hettie Blackburn, Orla Martin and Vivien Prelevic placed30th -quite something from the 82 starters.

The under 15-year boys of James Gilbey (12m 40s), Fred Ferman (13m 09s) and Josh Humphries (13m 20s) were to place eleventh but had satisfaction of being first Essex club. To the under 17 men and Daniel Pollard (12m 29s), Max Chivers (12m 53s) and Austin Kelly (12m 43s) finished 25th, Jacob Parrott with 12m 52s ran the first stage but had nobody to continue.  In the under 13 girls Bella Kehoe (15m 40s), Jessica Hobson (15m 35s) and Leila Robinson (16m 20s) were to finish 20^th.

Labelled as senior events but CAC teams, both men and women, contained under 20`s.  The women started with Ruby Vinton (20m 43s) followed by Freya Stapleton (19m25s), Megan Harris (18m 22s) with sienna Shipton on the final stage running 22m 47s to bring the team into 16th spot. For the men Jacob Hurrell with 16m 33s stage followed by Will Nuttall (17m 02s), Ethan Reilly (17m 18s), Zach Bridgeland (17m 31s), Lewis Harknett

(17m 31s) with Seb Cirillo completing the team with 18m 02s and in 31st place from the 76 starters.

I cannot close without noting that our local neighbours Brentwood may have justification for `bragging rights`and rightly so for they achieved gold medals in both under 13 and 15 girls races. Congratulations to them.

Report written by Roy Meadowcroft

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