On Saturday 22nd February over 50 C&C athletes made the short trip to London for the National Cross-Country Championships. With thousands of runners from across England competing there’s always a great atmosphere and plenty of support around the course at Nationals, and this year was no exception. Despite the sun shining, the rain earlier in the week meant there was lots of mud at Parliament Hill and some proper XC conditions!
The day started with the junior races and lots of great performances from C&C. The highlight was undoubtedly a team gold in the U15 boys, with Finn Maclennan (who also won an individual bronze medal), Harrison Pearson (12th), Harry Cantell (38th) and Joel Arnold-Pepper (39th) winning the national title, a fantastic achievement! Other standout runs included Cressida Hughes finishing 14th in the U17 Women and Sandy McDonald placing 12th in the U17 Men.
Jenny Leggate had a great run in the Junior Women, finishing 5th individually as the team also came 5th, narrowly missing out on a podium finish. Matthew and Isaac Morgan had an even closer battle in the Junior Men, finishing 17th and 18th respectively, separated by just 2 seconds after 10k of racing! The C&C teams also put in strong performances in the senior races. The Senior Women finished 7th, with Ellen Leggate the first C&C runner home, while Jack Gray had a strong run to come 6th in the Senior Men, helping the team to a 6th place finish.
Congratulations to everyone who completed a very muddy and hilly course, and a huge thank you to Ric and everyone else involved in organising and supporting the team on Saturday!