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Dave Varney writes:
Cornwall's 'big guns' were blazing this weekend as the
County's athletes competed against the best from the South West at the
second Inter Counties Championships to be held at the Bicton College, with
some superb individual & team results. Bicton is one of the favourite cross
country courses, set in the stunning grounds of the Devon agricultural
college, providing a testing course which drops from the start alongside a
lake, climbs back up before dropping again to either return to the start or
head off into the College fields with all races finishing on a tough climb
in front of the old house.
Robbie Bugden almost
missed the start as his train from Cardiff to Bristol was over an hour late
which cut his pre-race preparation to a minimum but this showed no signs as
Robbie & the other Cornish International in good form, Kevin Toher, soon
started pulling clear with Devon's Kevin Heywood in close attendance. With
two small opening laps & one of the large laps completed, the race was open
to any of this trio. It was not until half way through the fourth & final
lap that Bugden & Heywood managed to put daylight between themselves & Toher
with Bugden being the stronger over the final section. Heywood had the
satisfaction of leading the Devon team to victory over their Cornish rivals.
Competing within the
Senior race was one of the best Cornish Under 20 Men's teams to be assembled
for some years. Matthew Cleave was one of the youngest in the field but soon
made his presence felt in the top end of the race. Not far behind was
another young athlete, Chris Dobson who was also racing at his best, backed
up by Jason Long, Ollie Jose, Damien Wager- Kempen, Daniel Pike & Ollie
Starr. Cleave's 14th overall position led home a victorious quartet with
Dobson 23rd, Long 32nd & Jose 42nd.
The County had two runner's
up placings in the Under 17 age groups, the first from a very determined
Bethany Alston who made her intentions clear from the start as she pushed
the pace along, leading the group into the second lap & just losing out on
the last half to Nicla Morgan, a Wells City Harriers athlete but holding off
one of the pre-race favourites, Jessica Burns.
The Under 17 Men's race
went true to form with Plymouth AC team mates Jack Moxley & Jacob Landers
split by their County boundaries pitted against each other. Moxley gained
the expected victory over Cornish based Landers but not without a fight and
not far behind these two, Ryan Cleave took some highly rated scalps as he
put everything he had to hold on to his fourth place. The team finished
second behind a classy Somerset team. Two winning teams that could feature
highly in the National Inter-Counties in March, were led home by a pair of
Bronze medallists.
April Hogg looked in her
element as she tackled each of the tough climbs. As the Country's leading
pair of Naomi Speake & Melissa Courtney soon left the rest behind, it was
April that gradually picked off the other girls in front of her to take the
third placing and with Hannah Isles producing her best ever performance at
the right time at 11th, Freyer Glover just two places later & the consistant
Olivia Ballard at 16th, the team won by seven points over Dorset. Annabel
Gummow, arguably the County's best under 15 before this race was unavailable
and it would have been interesting to see how she faired against the leading
two & how close April could have got to her but more importantly, given the
performance of the winning quartet, if all four can repeat this with Annabel
also in the team at Nottingham a high National team placing is on the cards.
East Cornwall Harriers
team manager & coach, Revis Crowle had put forward a case for the inclusion
of under 13, Owen Morris following illness at the County Championships but
even she could not have envisaged the performance he turned on to beat all
of the other 'established' County team members with a storming up hill
finish to claim the Bronze position. After Owen, the Gold & Black vests
poured across the line, Callum Jones exhausted with the effort of holding
off Tom Rawet for 7th & 8th and Sam Heslop-George getting the beating of
Matt Sanders by a single place for the vital fourth score at 10th & 11th
respectively beat Somerset by six points.
With five in the top
seventeen places in the under 13 Girls race, it looked at first glance to
warrant a Cornish victory but with Devon & Somerset also well packed the
excellent performances of Amy Sweet (7th), Jessica Behennah (12th), Chloe
Carley, Ailsa Sharrock & Alice Vage (15th, 16th & 17th) had to settle for a
close third.
Other team positions:
Senior Men - 17 Chris McQuillen-Wright, 29 Gary Vernon, 46 Pete Ellis, 50
Martin Exley, 54 Damien Wager-Kempen (U20), 64 Daniel Pike (U20), 68 Graham
Hodgson & 75 Ollie Starr (U20) Senior Women - 11 Caroline Steven, 15 Emma
Stallard, 17 Lucy Kelvey, 18 Helen Glover, 29 Amy Colwill (U20), 34 Lesley
Dobson U17 Men - 15 James Waldie, 17 Chris Sykes, 26 Aaron Crowle, 42
Jonathan Brumby, 44 Adam Woodward & 48 Daniel Edwards U17 Women - 11 heidi
Cottam & 17 Ashley Sims U15 Boys - 7 Dan Nash , 14 Joe Skuse, 15 george
Linaker, 19 Harry Allen, 20 Sam Harry, 29 Steven Sims, 35 Barney Butler, 38
Adam Nancollas, 46 Liam Smith & 49 Josdhua Tack Under 15 Girls - 22 Katy
Parry, 28 Eleanor parkin, 30 Amy Rundle, 33 Ellie Starr, 37 Caitlin Mulroy,
43 Hollie Startup Under 13 Boys - 17 Hobie Martin, 18 Edward Alston, 38 Alex
Caers, 41 Cadan Crowle, 46 Joshua Steven, 48 Harry Greaves, 51 Sam Fearon &
56 Sam Furse Under 13 Girls - 25 Tamsin Gummow, 28 megan Davis, 29 Finlay
Bray, 30 Emily Cowell, 32 Kerryanne taylor & 55 Katie Yeomans .
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