National Title for C&C at the Cross Country Champs

History was made on Saturday as 40 athletes from Cambridge & Coleridge AC made the trip up to Bolesworth Castle in Cheshire with the aim of bringing back some silverware.

The day started with the U17 women, 2^nd at the recent Southern Championships they had their eyes firmly set on a first National team medal. They weren’t to be disappointed, led home by Jenny Leggate in 12^th, they had Lucy Jones 18^th, Isabel Mansley 44^th  and Amie Reed 57th completing the team, with non scorers, Emily Talbot, Emily Grey, Rose Green and Lily Wittich. The team took a dominant victory with a combined score of 131 to Wreake and Soar Valleys 172. The club has never won this trophy in its history and only once in the past won a National team title at the National XC champs – so a huge day for the team.

Success often breeds success and what followed meant it would be the clubs most successful day at the National XC champs. Individually Jasmine Christmas placed 11^th in the U13 girls. The U17 boys backed up their female counterparts winning team bronze, led by the Morgan twins, Matthew 22^nd  and Isaac 23^rd  and ably supported by Lewis Buchallet 71^st  and Liam Conway 79^th. The U15 girls also had a brilliant day, missing out on a National medal by just 4 points after great runs from all the girls Kiera 20^th, Cressida 22^nd, Georgie 70^th, Caitlin 89^th  and Juliette 142^nd

Attention turned to the final race of the day, the Senior men, who were aiming to improve on last year’s team bronze. A team packed with talent from 1500m up to the marathon, coming together as a team over 12km of XC racing. The team was headed by Jack Gray, recent winner of the Midlands title, he was going for individual glory as well as that team medal. What unfolded over the next 35 minutes was one of the, all-time great XC races (I urge anyone to go back and rewatch on YouTube as you won’t be disappointed). By halfway Jack and Jamie from Tonbridge AC had broken away and over the final 6km continued to not only move away from the rest of the field but also put in continued surges to try and break away form each other. The lead swapped countless times, each trying to make that decisive gap but neither succeeding. Over the final 600m Jamie finally broke away leaving Jack to finish a brilliant 2^nd at the Nationals.

Behind the epic race for the win an interesting battle was being fought for the team medals between 4 clubs, Leeds AC, Cambridge & Coleridge AC, Tonbridge AC and Highgate Harriers. Ultimately Leeds AC took the gold, but Cambridge finished 2^nd (Jack Gray 2^nd, Callum Elson 9^th, Jonathan Escalante- Phillips 24^th, James Teagle 45^th, Tom Keen 48^th, Norman Shreeve 49^th), matching its highest ever finish and taking home the trophy for the first Southern team at the Nationals for the first time in its history.

A truly historic day for the club and one which will only drive the club on to future success.

 

(Thank you to Rick for the race report.)