National Inter-Counties XC Championships

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Wiltshire sent a squad of 50 athletes to the National Inter-Counties XC championships at Cofton Park in Birmingham. In the Under-13 Girls race over 3,000m India Ibbotson of Team Bath led home the Wiltshire team with a 78th placed finish and along with 206th Imogen Tanner of IIF, 217th Olivia Roderick of IIF and Rachel Oram of Swindon Harriers saw Wiltshire finish in 39th position out of the 41 counties represented.
The Under-13 Boys also had a 3,000m course to tackle and it was William Morris of Lavington Athletics who led home Wiltshire with a 62nd placed finish and supported by 162nd Nile Batey from City of Salisbury AR&C, 179th James Gordon from Team Bath and 228th Oliver Phillips from City of Salisbury to take 33rd team position.

In the U15-Girls race over 4,000 Jade Littlechild of Team Bath led home the Wiltshire team and supported by 204th placed Sarah Brett of Andover AC, 243rd Chloe Hayward of Swindon Harriers and 266th Louise Webb from City of Salisbury A&RC saw Wiltshire finish as the 40th team past the post. The U15-Boys had a 4,500m course and it was 160th placed Otto Copping of Team Bath who led home the Wiltshire team with 234th Niall Thorne of Avon Valley Runners, 245th Ethan Pierce of Swindon Harriers and 264th Robert Croager of IIF who brought Wiltshire home in 38th place.

The U17-Men had a testing 6,000m course to overcome and despite the efforts of 107th placed Jaymee Domoney from City of Salisbury, 230th Fabrice Webb also from City of Salisbury and 248th Jack Warren from Marlborough & District Juniors Wiltshire finished with an incomplete team and hence did not score. A similar fate befell the Senior Ladies who suffered a number of last minute withdrawals from the team and left it to 182nd placed Denise Grech of Calne Running Club and 240th placed Sarah Warren from City of Salisbury to fly the county colours whilst Gemma Sheppard of Team Bath AC was the lone Wiltshire athlete in the U20-Ladies race and achieved the best place out of the squad with an excellent 20th place.

The Senior Men had to tackle a 12K course with several sharp climbs to be faced on each of the three laps. Leading out for Wiltshire was 40th placed Nyle Clinton of Swindon Harriers with 58th placed Ben Brewster of Southampton AC, 118th placed Simon Nott of Calne Running Club, 157th Heath Bampton of Oxford AC, 169th placed Damian Hall of Corsham Running Club and 195th placed Thomas Hemming of Swindon Harriers to score Wiltshire a fantastic 16th place, which is the highest position achieved by the county in this top flight competition.