The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Nene Valley Harriers concluded their cross country season at Temple Newsam Park in Leeds as 16 of the club’s most talented youngsters laced up their spikes for the English Schools Cross Country Championship.
Molly Peel capped what has been a fine season by finishing 34th and first Lincolnshire scorer in the Intermediate Girls race, while Cambridgeshire cross country champion Flo Brill finished 105th on what was a classic mud-bath of a course.
Three other Nene Valley girls had come through the qualifying rounds to be selected by their county at Intermediate level, and the Cambridgeshire trio of Ella Robinson, Katie Tasker and Olivia Mead finished 164th, 252nd and 326th respectively.
Owen Wilkinson has also enjoyed a good season – and he put the icing on the cake with a 42nd place finish for Cambridgeshire in the Intermediate boys race.
Lincolnshire’s Sam Hughes came home in 170th place in the same race.
Kai Chilvers was the pick of the Nene Valley juniors with an 86th place finish.
Cambridgeshire team-mate Joseph Reindel placed 164th, with Harry Hewitt having a good run to place 127th in a Lincolnshire vest.
Running in the light blue of Cambridgeshire, Chelsie Bole finished 287th in the girls’ race.
A trio of Nene Valley Senior girls ran for Cambridgeshire, with Molly Jones leading them home in 159th. Behind her, Josie Fortune placed 204th and Ellie Piccaver was 222nd.
Representing Lincolnshire, Archie Rainbow was the 233rd senior boy, with Aaron Hunt not far behind in 256th.
* Nene Valley had three men towards the front at the Oundle 20 race.
Leading the way was Mike Chapman, who finished 17th in 2.14.43hrs.
He is aiming to run his first sub-three hour marathon next month and appears to be running into form at the right time.
Behind him were James Mcdonald with 2.23.06hrs and Andy Todd in a time of 2.24.09hrs. They finished 30th and 32nd respectively.
* Chris Wright, formerly of Nene Valley but now London based, had a day to remember at the Reading half-marathon. He ran a new personal best with a 1.06.10hrs clocking, having run most of the race with Josh Lunn finishing one place ahead in 11th. The pair are both now in the top 25 of the UK rankings.
