WORCESTER Athletic Club hosted the annual Worcestershire Cross Country Championship at Droitwich High School and completed a highly successful day by claiming six of the 10 individual titles.
Facing many of their arch-rival clubs, such as Halesowen, Bromsgrove and Redditch and Kidderminster and Stourport, Worcester’s wins came through Ben Clarke (under 13 boys), Declan McManus (U15 boys), Jenny Nesbitt (U17 women), Thomas Stock (U17 men), Lewis Roberts (U20 men) and Sam Mitchell (senior men).
Along with the individual success, Worcester also won team titles in the under 15 girls, under 20 men and senior women.
The highlight of the day came in the senior men’s race in which Worcester’s Mitchell claimed his third consecutive county crown coming home three seconds ahead of Belgrave Harriers’ Stephen Sharp in a time of 35 minutes 22 seconds.
The race was a closely-fought contest from the outset with Halesowen’s Christian Booker, Worcester’s Chris Wilson and Tipton Harrier’s Matt Granger (third, fourth and fifth respectively) forming a leading pack with Mitchell and Sharp which forged well ahead of the rest of field over the 10km course.
Despite placing two runners in the top five finishers, Worcester had to settle for second in the team race as Halesowen’s strength in depth proved too great and they emerged victorious on the day.
In the senior women’s race, Worcester went one better than their male club-mates, taking the overall win as Kidderminster and Stourport’s Jacqui Phillips took the individual win.
There were also wins for Birchfield Harriers’ Chloe Richardson and Worcester’s Nesbitt in the under 20 and under 17 women’s races respectively. Halesowen’s Abigail Saker and Phoebe Dodd took the wins in the under 13 and under 15 girls’ races.
Worcester enjoyed a clean-sweep in the individual male races. In addition to Mitchell, there were victories in the U20, U17, U15 and U13 races for Roberts, Stock, McManus and Clarke respectively.
However, in the male team races it was Halesowen who had the greatest success, with Worcester’s victory in the under 20 age group proving to be the only race in which the Halesowen did not win.
The Worcester girls took the under 15 race, but Halesowen added to their overall trophy haul with wins in the U13 girls’ and U17 women’s team events.
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