December Round-up

In the weeks leading up to Christmas we saw our members contesting events over the cross country and in track and field  - from international meetings down to county level. Most notable must be the selection of Megan Harris for the Great Britain team for the European Championships in Portugal where in the event for under 23-year-olds she was second team member through in 19th place. Congratulations Megan - and to coach Hayley who has taken her to this level.

In the Essex cross country championships for veterans staged in Epping Forest there was success for Peter Tullett as he retained the title in the over 65`s category, this event also saw Mick Bridgeland placing 7th.  A full team contested the over 40`s and here they were led home by Tom Murphy 22^nd with Nick Hunter 31st, Sam Eida 42nd and David Phillips 46^th sixth team placing was taken. In the women's event there were good runs from Laura Durn to place 5th in the over 45`s whilst Anna Nuttall took 6th place in the over 50s.

For several of our younger members there was the honour of representing their schools in the English Schools team championships staged in Rugby having qualified via the area event. In the intermediate class Frankie Philipps 12th and Lily Sanford 15th led the Chelmsford County High to 4th spot narrowly missing out of the medals. Outside the scorers Vivien Prelevic placed 72nd. Moving to the senior girls and Amelie Shipton 10th and Emmie Lole 13th were representing St Martin`s School and again these performances took their team to 4th. Individually the best performance was to be that of Harry Wright in the senior boys placing 4th for the Fitzwimarc School.

What surely must be the final track and field fixture of 2025 two members came away with medals from the under 15-year South of England championships held at the Lee Valley Centre. Isla Kehoe took the 1500 metre title with a time of 4m 56.99s whilst in the pentathlon Shindara Ayo-Adeyemo with 2515 points was just edged out of top spot.

Report written by Roy Meadowcroft.