South West Inter-Counties XC
Wiltshire sent 80 athletes to compete in the South West Inter-County XC Championships held at Exeter racecourse and aquitted themselves well. Getting the county off to a golden start were the U13 Girls who were led home by Freya Buglass of Avon Valley Runners in 7th place and supported by 12th placed Imogen Tanner of IIF, 13th placed Orli Cranston of Avon Valley Runners and 15th placed Lavinia Rai of Swindon Harriers. This was followed up with a Bronze team medal from the Wiltshire U17 Ladies with Caroline Brenchley of Team Bath leading the team home in 6th place with club mates Jade Littlechild, Caitlin Wosika and Lucy Fitzpatrick; which also earned Team Bath a Silver medal in the inter-club competition too.
The Senior Men’s race saw Wiltshires leading male athletes pack well with Simon Nott of Calne Running Club leading the way in 11th place and supported by 13th placed Ben Brewster of Southampton AC, 14th place Rich Ayling of Avon Valley Runners, 16th placed Robert Mann of Exeter Harriers, 28th placed Thomas Davies of Team Bath and 31st placed Andrew Ind of Newbury AC but were denied a podium position with just 20 points seperating them from a potential Silver medal.
The Senior ladies race saw a fantastic individual performance by Ruth Barnes of Avon Valley Runners who broke away from the rest of the field on the first lap with just Cornwall’s Eleanor Davies for company before dropping her early in the second lap to take the victory. Fast improving Eilidh Bell of Chippenham Harriers just missed out on a podium place but with club mate Michelle Maxwell in 23rd place, 24th placed Denise Nott of Calne Running Club, 31st placed Jo Mumford of Avon Valley Runners and 32nd placed Jill Westwood also of Avon Valley Runners earned the county a team bronze medal and along with Diane Hier gave the Trowbridge based club a bronze medal in the inter-club competition. In 41st place Alison Graham of Corsham Running Club took the silver medal in the FV55 category on her county debut.
Results can be found here.