Wiltshire XC Championships

The fifth combined Tri-county cross-country running championships of Avon, Somerset and Wiltshire took
place at Bath University and saw five hundred of the areas top athletes in action. The first race of the
day was the developmental race for Under-11 Girls which saw Ciara Newcastle from Melksham finish second overall and take the Wiltshire title over the 1.9K course. In the Under-11 Boys developmental race Robert Jones from Lover near Salisbury took also finished second overall and took the Wiltshire title.

The Under-13 age groups had to tackle a 2.8K course and Abigail Burn from City of Salisbury and Robert
Croager from IIF ran out as the respective Wiltshire champions. The Under-15 age groups saw Caitlin Wosika of Team Bath cover the 3.8K course in 13:51 to take the Wiltshire title, whilst club mate Robert
Howorth ran out as overall winner in the Tri-county race in 12:19.

Gemma Shepherd of Team Bath also proved to be an overall winner in the U17 Ladies covering the 4.7K
course in 17:11 with Will Stockley also of Team Bath finishing third overall to claim the Wiltshire title over the 5.7K course in 18:28.

The Senior Ladies race was fiercely contested and saw Imogen Wolsey of Team Bath claim the county title
in 4th place, however it was the Avon Valley Runners team of Jaqueline Rockliffe, Jennifer Ford, Fiona Price and Kiersty Barnett that claimed the Wiltshire XC team title for the fifth time and also took the bronze medal behind Bristol & West and Westbury Harriers in the Tri-County championship ahead of Team Bath and Chippenham Harriers.

The Senior Mens race saw a three way fight for the Wiltshire title between Thomas Cummings and Ben Brewster from City of Salisbury along with defending champion, Michael Towler of Avon Valley Runners who this time had to settle for the bronze, however Towler with Rich Ayling, Mike Rose, David Brigstocke,
Dominic Beddis and Pete Slade in support came through to sucessfully defend their Wiltshire XC team title
and also claimed the silver medal in the Tri-county championships behind Team Bath and ahead of Bristol &
West AC, Westbury Harriers and Chippenham Harriers.

The race was also used to select the Wiltshire team for the South West Inter-counties XC Championships which takes place at Bicton College near Exeter on Sunday 4th January.

Results from the event can be found here

Official photographs from the event can be found here