A busy weekend of competitions for our athletes.
Two Grantham AC athletes were up against some of the country’s leading runners in last Saturday’s Northern Indoor Championships held in Sheffield. After a thrilling race Naomi Collier missed out on Gold by 6/100ths of a second in the senior women’s 1500m with a finishing time of 4:29.23 In the next race on track, Aaron Hunt secured Bronze in the under 17 men’s 1500m, having led for much of the race on his Championship debut, he finished with an impressive time of 4:15.30 Their respective times and podium positions provide an excellent platform for the track season ahead and one GAC look forward to watching and supporting.
Sunday saw eight younger athletes from GAC travel to Hubbards Hill in Louth to take part in the last round of the Lincolnshire Runner Cross Country League. The day started with typical cross country weather, cold, wet and foggy. Conditions under foot where muddy and the course proved deceptively hard with off camber sections and a long uphill start.
U11 Girls where represented by Megan Tremain, who has shown great dedication to her XC racing this season, completing the whole series and finished mid field. At such a young age it takes real guts to race especially with no other team mates in your category. Next up to race were the U13 Girls where we saw Ella Rose Hobday battle the course and come home in fourteenth place, she said she was relieved that she finished, after being hit with the Queens cough recently! Last out of the female Athletes to race was her sister Isabel Hobday, who ran a steady race with a strong finish, allowing her to take fifth place in the U15 girls. All of these girls represented the club in the whole of the series and should be congratulated.
Next up were our male athletes, U13 boy, Ewan Rodell began his race strong and fought hard and finished in second place. This result placed Ewan in an impressive second place overall, for the U13 boys in the Lincolnshire Runner Cross Country League. A reflection of his dedication to his Cross Country and his grit when racing. Just as determined, his brother Rori Rodell our U15 athlete, ran a confident race bringing him home in a respectable 6h place.
The trio of Grantham’s U17 boys were in for a battle, as the winner of this race would determine the overall winner of the League and places would also determine the team result. Will Tucker, Aaron Hunt and George Hatton ran with conviction, with Will Tucker leading comfortably from the outset and running commandingly to finish in first place. Close behind was Aaron Hunt in third, an impressive result considering he raced the previous day at the Sheffield 1500m indoor event. Bringing the team home, George Hatton concluded his successful Lincs XC League in a strong fourth place.
The Trio were awarded for all their hard efforts with First Place Team U17 Boys title and Will Tucker a well-deserved first for the individual U17 boys event. Grantham U17 boys dominated this series from the start and we are very proud of their efforts and their excellent placings.
So this race brought us to the end of Lincolnshire Runner Cross Country League. A huge thank you to all of our athletes young and slightly older who represented GAC, taking time out of their weekends to race in, at times not so tempting conditions, but I think they would all agree, that it was a great series with some challenges courses. They certainly fought for every place and showed real athleticism and true team spirit.
The cross country team are now focusing on the Midlands Cross Country Champs taking place on 28th January in Loughborough and the National Championships at Wollaton Park in Nottingham on the 25th February. We wish them well.
