The Hertfordshire County Cross Country Championships were held at Trent Park on Saturday 4th January and what a day this was for Herts Phoenix! Along with many parents of the athletes, coaches Jeff, Andy and Larry were scattered all over the course supporting our endurance athletes.

The meeting started at 11am with races for the under 11 girls and boys, some great runs and finishes by Isla and Missy and a fine run by Henry to win the silver medal, with an intelligent run, in only his third competitive race.

These were followed by races for the under 13 girls and boys with Millie and Penelope running well in very challenging conditions, as the ground thawed and the frozen conditions became rather WET. Josh came into his race with a very bad cold and expectations were for him to just run, under no pressure and finish well. Josh ran probably his most gutsy run ever and ended up on the podium, superb! A shout out also for Alban who is improving with every race.

Next up were the under 15 boys and what a team, consisting of Jake, Sean, Freddie, Jack, Harry and Thomas ……….the future is exciting for these boys who are looking stronger and stronger. Young Under 15 Jake ran his best competitive race ever and his commitment to training, is paying off big time.

On the topic of the exciting future, the next race for the u17 men finished with a 1,2 3 for the team – Gold for Luke, Silver for the legend that’s Ben and Bronze for the fast improving Mati!

By this time all of our senior runners had arrived and were frantically asking the youngsters what size spikes they should use!

Our u20 women Tabitha and Grace were evidence of the answer, it was getting muddier and muddier as the races progressed. Tabitha lost the feeling in her feet, yet ran bravely to finish in third place. Grace was Grace, so graceful through the mud and our true Captain ran a solid race.

In the under 20 men’s race Caleb ran strongly to finish in 4th place and Ollie competed well finishing 7th.

Following the examples set by the younger athletes the Senior Women and Men extremely well with Annabel finishing more than a minute ahead of the rest of the field to win a well deserved Gold medal, followed by Harriet, who ran very strongly to finish in 4th place, with Deborah in 12th place and then in the final race of the day there were excellent runs by the Senior Men, with Brett winning the race followed by Oscar in second place and John in 4th to secure a silver medal in the team event they were backed up by Steve 19th, Martin 35th , George 51st and Jon 65th out of the 79 finishers.

A truly superb and memorable day for Herts Phoenix AC and many thanks from the athletes and their parents to the Club Officials for their help in making this such an enjoyable day
Results of Herts Cross Country Championships held at Trent Park, Cockfosters on Saturday 4th January 2025

Senior Men – 10750 metres
Brett Rushman – 33:25 – 1st, Oscar Bell – 33:46 – 2nd, John Eves – 36:09 – 4th,
Steven Prosser – 40:50 – 19th, Martin O’Neill – 42:18 – 35th, George Lynch – 45:16 – 51st, Jonathan Rushman – 50:11 – 65th
79 finished
Team Second

Under 20 Men – 8000 metres
Caleb O’Neill – 25:19 – 4th, Oliver Hobdell – 28:22 – 7th
19 finished

Under 17 Men – 6000 metres
Luke Dunham – 18:44 – 1st, Ben Murphy – 19:17 – 2nd, Mati Benveniste – 20:36 – 3rd
16 finished
Team First

Under 15 Boys – 4500 metres
Jake Summers – 13:53 – 4th, Sean Mazur – 14:31 – 7th, Freddie Hollings-Yates – 14:46 – 9th,
Jack Evans – 16:49 – 16th, Harry Murphy – 17:00 – 17th, Thomas Anderson – 19:34 – 19th
19 finished
Team Second

Under 13 Boys – 3000 metres
Joshua Maiden – 10:40 – 3rd, Alban Wadley – 10:55 – 5th
18 finished

Under 11 Boys – 1500 metres
Henry Wakefield – 7:27 – 2nd, Henry Bostock – 8:11 – 9th, Alexander Kemp – 9:33 – 23rd,
Leonardo Wackett – 11:00 – 29th
29 finished
Team Third

Senior Women – 7000 metres
Annabel Gummow – 27:07 – 1st, Harriet Kealy – 29:25 – 4th, Deborah Rushman – 32:17 – 12th
47 finished

Under 20 Women – 6000 metres
Tabitha Woodhouse – 22:32 – 3rd, Grace Mason – 26:16 – 7th
9 finished

Under 13 Girls – 3000 metres
Amelie Axam – 13:06 – 11th, Penelope Field – 13:15 – 12th
19 finished

Under 11 Girls – 1500 metres
Isla Griffith – 9:04 – 6th, Missy Steel – 10:11 – 10th
12 finished