WHILE the Kent County Cross Country Championships at Wilmington may not have been a vintage one for Blackheath & Bromley, there were some notable efforts.

Six individuals won medals and five sets of team medals, one of which was gold.

In the Senior age groups Andy Rayner and Shavaun Henry both won bronze medals.

Rayner has had more than his fair share of injuries recently so a third place was an encouraging effort.

He was nearly half a minute clear of fourth place.

Shavaun was a similar distance clear of the next placed athlete as she improved three places on last years 6th position.

Peter Tucker, who is now back running first claim for the Club, finished in a very good 7th place.

Glenn Turner also ran well to place 35th , with Danny Brewer 38th, Jamie Darling improving 20 places on last year to finish 41st and joint team manager David McKinlay 58th.

This gave the Club 4th in the team race, the same as the women with Sarah Dowling placing 21st and Julie Reynolds 30th.

Disappointingly the men could not finish a team in the 12 to score contest and the women were short in the 6 to score event as well.

The under 20 men won team bronze led home by Steve Cavey in 6th with Ben Cockburn 8th and Ross Braden 12th.

Mel Kane was 5th and Danielle Critchley 6th in the womens race.

Kate Curran took the bronze medal in the under 17 womens race and with Amber Reed 7th and Bethany Frost 10th the team finished 2nd just five points behind winners Tonbridge.

Emma Rowland also ran well to finish in 12th.

It was not such a good day for the men as they only had two runners, Will Ruiz in 25th and Tom Greenhill 38th, and so they did not score in the team race.

Good packing saw the under 15 girls place four athletes in the top 10 led by Niamh Bridson Hubbard in 4th with Janae Galley 5th, Charlotte Rhule 7th and Lucy Sidey 9th.

Samantha Leighton in 16th and Leah Everson 17th were close behind and the first three received silver medals in the team contest.

Will Fuller was 8th in the boys race while Bailey Stickings finished 16th, Richard Webb 21st, Thomas Desborough 30th and Jonathan Court 37th. They were 4th in the team race.

Most successful age group were the under 13s. The girls had the biggest turn out of any of the Clubs squads with 10 athletes finishing.

They also won the most medals as Georgina Taylor took silver and Naomi Kingston bronze.

With Jessica Keene 6th they secured the Club’s only set of team gold medals of the day.

A host of talent followed them home as Mary Guy was 13th, Shannon Riskey 14th, Yasmin Austridge 21st, Joanna Clowes 24th, Molly Dent 33rd, Chloe Kibblewaite 35th and Madeleine Payne 40th.

Josh Davidson was an excellent third in the boys race and Charlie Davis in 6th and Jake Potter in 9th also made the top 10 and secured team silver medals.

Had any of these not finished the positions of Will Pope in 12th, Lewis Stickings 26th and Scott Bulmer 34th would each have enabled the club to win medals.

Being close to the Kent/Surrey border the Club has athletes who live less than two miles from the Clubhouse who are not Kent qualified.

The Surrey Championships took place at Dorking and David Taylor, a former South Of England cross country champion, improved 5 places on last year to place 12th and help his second claim club Herne Hill Harriers win gold.

This was an impressive performance from an athlete over the age of 45.

Up and coming Will Mercer finished in 8th place in the under 20 men's race.

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