ST ALBANS AC and St Albans Striders will be running in Division One of the Chiltern League next year having gained promotion on an an immensely muddy course at Wing on Saturday.
Tom Crouch won the Division Two men’s race despite at one point losing his shoe in the thick mud, before battling on over the 9k course. Ironman Paul Adams came third, while Ed Blake wasn’t far behind in 6th. Steve Buckle (12th), Gary Warren (15th), Andy Auld (16th), Richard Davis (25th) and Colin Braybrook (26th) completed the winning team.
Lucy Waterlow notched up a further victory for the Striders in the women’s 6k race with strong runs from Deborah Steer (3rd), an ever improving Wendy Webster (7th) and Zoe Lowe (13th) ensuring another team victory.
Combined with the results from the previous four races, Saturday’s success meant the clubs were crowned Division Two champions.
Tom Crouch won the men’s league title overall with Paul Adams in second while Lucy Waterlow won the women’s title. Vets Deborah Steer (1st V45), Liz Walls (1st V55), Gary Warren (2nd V40) Colin Braybrook (2nd V50), and Paul Gurr (3rd V50) also earned individual prizes.
Men’s cross country captain Ed Blake said: “We set out at the start of the season with the goal of winning Division Two so I’m delighted that we’ve been able to achieve that.
“Turnout from both the men and women was consistently high throughout the season, despite some tough courses and conditions, which was instrumental in our success - and will be even more important as we progress to Division One next year.”
For St Albans AC the U11s were the first age groups to race. Keira Stern of Garden Fields School finished in 10th place in her first race. Dominic Walsh completed all five fixtures in his first year at the club.
The U13s boys finished in Division Two with Callum Walsh and Jed Lumb in first and second overall. Debutant Josh Edwards had a great first race for the club finishing in first place.
The U13 girls also had a great turnout and finished in 2nd place with Emily Anders finishing 2nd in the individual standings.
The U15 girls finished in 2nd place thanks to great runs by Tabitha Weddell and Rachel Parlour, who have also been selected by the Hertfordshire schools to take part in the English schools championships next month in Derbyshire.
Ben Clarke in the under 15 boys again made easy work of the challenging course to
finish in 1st place and he has also been selected to represent Hertfordshire .
The club secured a top three spot in the U17s with Megan Steer taking 3rd place in the junior women and Jamie Abbiss 1st in the junior men.
AC athlete James McMurray had again been selected to race for England, this time in Southern Spain .
Elsewhere at the Wokingham Half Marathon Striders Gary Warren (72nd in 1:18:47), Martin Whitworth (149th in 1:23:17) and David Perry (199th in 1:25:35) all had great races and Jack Brooks completed Genk Marathon in Belgium on a hilly, icy and very slippery course in 3:52:58.
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