FORTY Thurrock Athletes contended the County Cross Country Relay
Championships on Saturday.
The most successful team was that of the under 13 boys who won the
title. Leon Wheeler led off with 12.07 – a time which was to be the
fastest in this section. Ben Prior put in a solid shift next with a
time 13.10 and was 9th fastest on the day. Harry Parker, still with
another year in the age group, was 4th fastest in the race and on the
last leg brought his team home to a comfortable 72 second victory – a
truly great team performance.
The senior men were 9th in a field of 43 teams – a solid performance.
Star of the squad was Alex Houghton whose 16.21 for the tough 4.8k
course was 9th fastest of the day. After an absence of a year it was
good to see John Green back in harness with a 17.19 stint.
Likewise Scott Rice, out with a knee injury for some months, put in a
top 35 performance with 16.21. The final ‘A’ team member was Don
Lawless, who celebrated his 50th birthday last month and on Saturday
ran a
creditable 17.21.
The men’s B team were 20th, C team 22nd and D team 29th. The times of
the athletes in these teams were:
Jon Metcalf 17.33, Keith Willett 17.35, Gerry Cahill (junior) 17.36,
Nick Trencher 17.44, Martin Mack 18.26, Gary Cahill (senior) 18.43,
John Russell 18.56, Richard Amery 19.03, Nigel Instance 19.09, Iain
Scott 19.21, Bernie Johnson 20.38.
On the male side another eye-catching performance was Sam Smith’s 11.16
in the under 17 men which was the day’s 4th fastest.
Best performance of the girls side was Gemma Holloway’s 8th best time
in the Senior Ladies race. She anchored the team to 12th place in the
32 finishing teams. Toni Noble 19.38 and Victoria Peacock 21.31 ran to
make up this team.
Other teams:
U13 girls 5th out of 11.
Hayley Instance 13.19, Amy Raven 15.01, Kiera Scott 15.08
U15 girls 7th out of 11
Lucy Ball 14.15, Rhiannon Ryan 14.51, Heather Peters 14.35
Under 17 girls 5th out of 8
Brooke Mensah 14.17, Anna Stancombe 14.07, Chaima Allali 14.35
Under 13 boys
Henri Willett 14.24, Ross Livermore 16.11, S Dhillon 16.27
Under 15 boys 5th out of 8
Reece Scott 12.33, Taylor Newell 12.42, Jack Exley 12.17
(Non Scorer) Sarab Dhillon 12.49
Under 17 mens 7th out of 11
Sam Smith 11.16, Tyler Chu 12.04, Gary Cahill 11.58
