The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Nene Valley Harrier Sam Oakley was the only local gold medalist at the Cambridgeshire Cross Country Championships in St Neots.
There were, however, plenty of podium places and team medals won by athletes from the club.
Oakley finished third in the under-13s race this time last year, but 12 months is a long time in athletics and his extra experience and strength meant that he was able to see off the rest of the field with relative ease.
The victory earned Oakley an invitation to represent the East of England at this year’s London Mini-marathon.
The senior men’s race provided one of the day’s highlights as Peterborough AC narrowly pipped Nene Valley to team bronze, behind the all-conquering Cambridge and Coleridge teams who took both silver and gold.
Nathan Tweedie finished 12th for Nene Valley, just ahead of 16th placed Rob Brownlee, Sam Hunt (25th), James Macdonald (35th) and Mike Chapman (36th).
The under-20 men ran with the seniors – and the energy sapping 10k course was a big step up in distance for many of them. Nevertheless, Nene Valley rose to the occasion by winning team silver.
Jevan Robertson took the individual bronze with Oliver Bowling finishing sixth ahead of Rio Chilvers in seventh.
Nene Valley’s Oliver Oakley was also 13th.
Elsewhere, Josie Fortune finished as third under-17 girl and also won team bronze along with her Nene Valley teammates Ellie Piccaver and Imogen Woodward who were third and tenth respectively.
Nene Valley’s Lottie Hemmings also took bronze in the under-13s race, with team-mate Elisha Foord (ninth) also in the top ten.
Elsewhere, Nene Valley’s senior women displayed their strength in depth as they won team bronze.
The club attract athletes from Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire, and under the competition birth and residency rules several of their leading ladies are not eligible to run in the Cambridgeshire Championship.
This proved to be nothing more than a minor inconvenience as Sophie Wilkinson-Hargate (12th), Louise Blake (14th) and Jordan Foster (16th) all had inspired runs and won team bronze.
Wilkinson-Hargate also picked up the over-35 silver.
Also on-song were the under-15 Nene Valley girls, who won silver.
Amber Park led them home in third ahead of fifth-placed Katie Tasker and Molly Jones in sixth.
The under-15 boys just missed out on team medals, finishing fourth with Ben Roberts first Harrier across the line in ninth.
The top eight from each race will represent Cambridgeshire in the Inter Counties Championship later in the season.
