STRATFORD AC stars Alex Adams and Georgie Campbell both stormed to impressive race victories at the Midland Cross Country Championships at Newbold Comyn in Leamington.
Adams retained his under-17 men’s title to claim the gold medal in 16 minutes 40 seconds whilst Campbell won the under-20 women’s race in a blistering time of 19 mins 30 secs.
The Championships act as the first major event of the cross country season with the course at Newbold Comyn a regular venue for the annual race.
Stratford’s under-13 girls contested the first race of the day over 3km as Lois Ford (30th in 10:47), Stella Sant (35th in 11:01), Portia Nabney (36th in 11:01), Ava Sheppard (42nd in 11:22) and Amelia Peeke (48th in 11:40) helped the club place seventh out of 15 teams.
They were followed by the under-13 boys as Arthur Williamson (9th in 09:18) finished in the top-10 with Will Hovell (13th in 09:28), Aran Cooper (15th in 09:34), Kipp Stevens (27th in 10:00), Arthur Mansbridge (42nd in 10:25) and Morgan Nabney (45th in 10:29) all in pursuit.
This ensured a third place finish overall as the first four finishers received bronze medals for their efforts.
Stratford had three finishers in the under-15 girls race as Annie Silvers (33rd in 15:12) led the team home followed by Martha Peters (51st in 16:47) and Hannah Wilkinson (56th in 17:27).
However, Stratford’s under-15 boys finished third overall as Zak Lambert (18th in 12:52), Sam Lambert (22nd in 13:04), Will Mayes (26th in 13:07) and Tom Fisher (29th in 13:14) all earned bronze medals whilst James Day (41st in 13:38) and James Mayes (52nd in 14:07) also completed the race.
The club’s under-17 women’s team missed out on bronze by a single point as Niamh Hillard (14th in 19:08), Maisie-Joy Spriggs (15th in 19:17), Abbie Cooper (25th in 20:42), Lucy Thomas (38th in 22:09) and Tilly Campbell (45th in 25:28) all completed the course.
Adams clinched the gold medal in the final race of the junior programmne (under-17 men’s) and was followed by Stratford’s Jaicob Ford (40th in 19:37).
And that was backed up by Campbell’s gold medal winning performance in the women’s under-20 race whilst Charly Marshall took bronze in a time of 19 mins 55 secs.
In the under-20 men’s race, Stratford won team silver as Taylor Stubbins (9th in 23:46), Alex Pester (13th in 24:34), Ned Campbell (18th in 25:11) and Koda Spriggs (28th in 27:07) all ran superbly with the foursome all selected for the Warwickshire inter-counties cross country team
Stratford placed 13th in the senior women’s race, led home by Suzie Ross (69th in 31:44), Ceri Shepherd (78th in 32:13), Suzi Graham (112th in 35:07) and Becks Pridham (131st in 37:23).
The senior men’s race was the final race of the day as Stratford came home 14th overall to make a big improvement on last year’s performance.
Richard Shephard (77th in 37:44), Tim Hutchinson (143rd in 40:59), Adam Linforth (145 in 41:02), Phil Reading (164th in 42:10), Dave Teasdale (168th in 42:25), Max Ross (199th in 44:33), Joe Lee (233rd in 46:22), Peter Sugden (240th in 46:47) and Chris Spriggs (282nd in 50:19) made up the squad.
The Stratford team will now focus on their final league races of the season in mid-February followed by the National Championships in February and March.
