Athletes from Bedford and County Athletics Club were celebrating in the winner’s enclosure on Saturday (8 February) as the club secured overall victory at the Chiltern Cross Country League in Oxfordshire.
With overall success in the League achieved for the first time in seven years, there was also a team title for the Senior Women, their first in eleven years as well as a title for the Under-17 Men.
The Senior Men, Under-20 Men and Under-11 Boys came away with silver medals while the Under-15 Boys and Under-13 Boys won bronze in one of the most successful editions of the Chiltern League for the club.
The Chiltern League encompasses cross country running fixtures across five locations, beginning in Keysoe in October before visiting Milton Keynes, Luton, Cassiobury Park in Watford and finally Horspath in Oxford, where the titles were secured.
Individual winners
There were also individual winners across all the age groups, with a first place for Under-17 runner, Mackenzie Kotrys with a second place finish, and a silver medal, to Under-13 athlete, Ethan Gibbs.
Individual bronze medals went to Molly Blizard in the Senior Women’s competition, as well as for Under-17, Theo Beale.
The Under-17 success this season has not been restricted to the Chiltern League as the team achieved second place as a team at the recent Southern Championships at Beckenham Place Park, situated in Lewisham, in January.
The group are now looking forward to the English Cross Country Championships on February 22 at Parliament Hill, with over 60 athletes from Bedford and County Athletics Club taking part.
Wins for Wilkins
Elsewhere at Bedford and County, young athlete Jasmine Wilkins flew to Dublin for an indoor meeting at Abbotstown, running in the 60m and 200m.
Despite having just returned from warmer climates in Tenerife, Wilkins still managed to set a new club record in the 200m with a time of 24.33 seconds at the end of January.
Not one to rest on her laurels, Jasmine was then selected to represent England in Iceland at the Reykjavik International Games on 27 January, and pulled off a personal best equalling time of 7.47 seconds in the Senior 60m ‘B’ final, winning gold ahead of a field of Icelanders.
There have also been Masters club records broken, with Graeme Packman achieving 9.51m in the M70 shotput along with Glen Kerr who beat an M50 shotput record that has stood since 1991 with an effort of 10.84m to secure bronze at the EMAC Indoor Championships.
Cross Country meetings dominate the athletics calendar for the next month, with the meeting at Parliament Hill supplemented by the Inter Counties championship in Nottingham plus the British Masters in Glasgow and the English Schools championship in West Sussex in March.
