U.K. cross challenge and European Trials Sefton Park Liverpool

Two athletes Joel Doye (Under 20) and Bethan-Rose Davies (Under 15) made the long trip to the North West to compete at Sefton Park Liverpool in the third round of the U.K. cross challenge XC series . Both athletes are in fine form. Joel following an excellent run at the Met League senior debut(11th) and fine runs at the National XC relays plus Milton Keynes XChallenge. Bethan too placing 2nd in her U15 girls Met League debut earlier this month and a cracking 5k park run at Raphael last Saturday in 18 mins 23 which places her 37th in the U.K. for 5k parkrun. Her previous best was just outside 21 minutes.

The heavy rain in recent weeks had left parts of the course wet underfoot which got worse after each race . First up was Bethan in only her second cross country race this season which is her first full season after being out the previous season due to long COVID. Not only was Bethan up against some of the top athletes in the North of England she was also facing eight Scottish athletes whom all had placed top 12 on their National short course XC champs only a couple of weeks ago  .Other top Welsh athletes popped over to make it a star studded field. Bethan ran well over the 3k course, a bit boggy in places, to place 31st from nearly 150 starters. Bethan managed to put two of the Scottish starlets behind her. Her time of 11 mins 42 was just over a minute behind winner Shakira King of Wreake and Soar Valley. One must remember Bethan, who only turned 13 last August, was probably one of the youngest in the field. A great experience gained by our athlete.

Joel toed the line in the U20 mens race which was part of the European trials. This was a star studded field of over 150 athletes. This race was over 6700 metres and the conditions under foot were a lot worse by now. Although Will Barnicoat and Sam Mills broke clear the next 60/70 athletes all came in within 80 seconds of the 3rd place athlete. Joel pushed through well in the latter stages to place 57th in 22 mins 15 .The measure of Joel’s improvement this season is that he was ahead of an athlete who ran nearly a minute quicker than Joel at Milton Keynes back last March in the South Of England relays. Other athletes boasting PB's of under 8 minutes 30 for 3k and 3 mins 55 were left training behind Joel. This like Bethan was a great experience for our lad. Joel will now take a few days out before coming back for the second part of the XC season,