Seven athletes represented Tamworth AC at the prestigious National Cross Country Championships yesterday, at Bolesworth Castle, near Chester. A great venue and more untypical cross country conditions for this season, with the ground being relatively solid and not a lot of mud to be seen, strangely for XC

If my maths is correct across the 10 races (adults and junior races), a grand total of 4,103 athletes from all over England, ran in this event yesterday and completed it! They are spectacular races to watch.

First on for Tamworth in the U17 Womens’ race was Stefi Honkowicz. Stefi continued her remarkable first season with Tamworth with a fantastic 49th place finish. Some going on her Nationals debut! And setting her up perfectly for the National Inter Counties and National English Schools events in March, which she has qualified for.

Zac Edwards then ran in the U15 Boys’ race, finishing in 234th place. A good XC season for Zac and next up for him is the National Inter Counties, where he has qualified to run for Staffordshire at Prestwold Hall on the 11th March

Lucy Hornby then ran well in the U13 Girls’ race, finishing in 207th position. A first competition run in the green and white of Tamworth for Lucy, following her recent move from Nuneaton!

In the U17 Mens’ race, Ben Godber ran a really strong race to finish in 227th place. A National XC Championships debut for Ben.

We had two Tamworth runners in the U15 Girls race, Jessica Salt and Evie Caffrey.

Jess ran well and put in a strong finish to secure her first ever Top 100 position in the Nationals, finishing 87th. Evie followed up her strong recent performance in the Midlands XC, with another good run, finishing 240th.

Finally in the Senior Womens’ race, Rebecca Brayer ran really well to finish in 352nd place (in this race alone, there were a grand total of 774 competitors!)

As ever, a huge thank you to XC Team Manager, Ben Evans and coach Colin Pleass for all of their hard work in managing, not just this event, but all events for Tamworth across the whole cross country season.

The Nationals is always a fantastic occasion and Ben, Colin, the junior athletes and their parents travelled to Chester on Friday and a great weekend was had by all.

Finally, a few photos attached, including a couple of examples of the official ones of Jess.

If any of the parents haven’t downloaded the official Saucony photos yet from yesterday, just go to the ‘English Cross Country Association’ Facebook page and you will see the link to go in and download them to your Facebook page. There are a lot of photos of each athlete available, taken at various points on the course.

Well done everyone!