Saucony English National Cross Country Championships – Race Report by Sean Topham
A SQUAD of 12 athletes represented Louth Athletic Club at the gruelling ‘Grand National’ of cross country running held at Donington Park in Leicestershire last Saturday.
The Saucony English National Cross Country Championships is an awesome sporting spectacle and previous winners of the classic 140-year-old race, which pre-dates the Olympic Games, have included Mo Farah, Steve Ovett, Gemma Steel and Paula Radcliffe.
This year’s event attracted more than 5,000 athletes from 538 clubs ranging from elite athletes to weekend joggers.
The Donington Park course was a tough slog with runners trudging through boggy mud and energy-sapping hills – completing the race is a feat in itself.
First up for Louth were under-13 boys Lucas George Jones and Caleb Stevenson who finished 143rd and 223rd out of 420 finishers.
Josh Tarrant and Jevon George Jones, who unfortunately picked up a calf strain, ran in the under-13 boys’ race and finished 187th and 322nd out of 367th runners.
Adam Dalton and Jason Stainton ran in the senior men’s race and came 304th and 1,014th out of 1,730 finishers.
Louth AC’s veteran women were the only age group from the club with enough runners to field a team, at least four are needed for scores to count.
There were some great performances to put them in 71st place overall.
Kerry Stainton was first home in 321st place, followed by Trudy Roberts (513), Fiona Lawrie (565), Christine Giles (602), Lynda Dalton (623) and Jane Cope (662) out of 739 finishers.
More photos kindly available by Graham Stevenson at:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lincsmotorsport/sets/72157662826058204