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