Tamworth Athletic Club

Athletes from Tamworth Athletic Club competed against the best runners in the country at the National Cross Country Relays at Berry Hill Park, Mansfield; a prestigious event in the running calendar that even featured Olympic 800m semi-finalist Phoebe Gill.

Tamworth entered a combination of four complete teams and three incomplete teams, maximising the number of athletes taking part: eighteen in total.

First up for Tamworth were Jessica Salt and Evie Caffrey in the Under-17 Women’s race. Without a full team of three, they were not going to match last year’s excellent position of 26th that they both contributed to. Both however still ran strong races, with Jessica finishing 39th in a tough first 2.5km leg and Evie 47th in the second.

On to the Under-13 Girls race, with four Tamworth athletes competing, each over a 2km leg. This was the first time any of these girls had competed at the championships. Freya Armitage set the tone finishing 58th on the first leg, with Annabelle Hill only 15 seconds behind her in 65th place. Robyn Edwards then ran an excellent second leg making up 6 places for the team and finishing 41st. Lacey Eaton then ran a strong final leg, with the full team finishing in 55th position overall.

The Under-17 Men’s race with 3km legs had two more championship debutants for Tamworth. Zac Edwards and Joshua Iddon in an incomplete team of two. Zac came home in 75th position on the first leg, while Joshua finished in 88th position on the second.

Tamworth fielded a full team of three in the 2km leg Under-15 Girls race. Lucy Hornby, who has previous experience of the relays, took on the tough first leg and ran strongly, with relay debutants Jessica Baines and Annie Mulvey running the second and third legs to carry Tamworth to a respectable 69th position overall.

Another full team of three lined up for Tamworth in the Under-15 Boys race who put in a strong performance in a tough race. Alex Haywood finished the first 2km leg in 50th position, followed by William Upton in the second, who maintained a good position with a strong finish. An excellent debut from Anthony Tolley to finish 48th in the third leg ensured that Tamworth finished 52nd out of 91 teams. The boys’ total time for the 6km run was 23:35.98; a really good performance on this national stage.

A great day was rounded off by the Senior Men’s team, securing an excellent position of 82nd out of 163 teams from across the country. The team of four, Howard Bush, Reinis Baltins, Robert Dyjak and Max Kent each took on a 5km leg, finishing with a total time of 1h14 m53s for the combined 20km race.

Jonathan Salt, deputising as Team Manager, said “A really good day and a great experience for our runners, with a large number of the team making their debuts at the relays. What was particularly evident was a genuine team spirit there with everybody helping each other. There were certainly a few nerves around, understandable in a huge national event like this, but all of our athletes took it in their stride and each and every one of them did the club proud.”

Photos above – U13 Girls (l-r): Robyn Edwards, Freya Armitage, Lacey Eaton, Annabelle Hill

U15 Boys (l-r): Anthony Tolley, Alex Haywood, William Upton

U15G (l-r): Annie Mulvey, Lucy Hornby, Jessica Baines

U17M (l-r): Joshua Iddon, Zac Edwards

U17W (l-r): Jessica Salt, Evie Caffrey