West Suffolk traveled down to Brighton for the South of England Cross County Championships, on Saturday 27 January! The under 13 girls (aka the Wild Cats) ran a hilly 3k course. In that race Lila Battell finished 71st with a time of 12.12, second came Marni Sillitoe with a time of 12.28 which was quite an improvement from her previous races. Lorna Coull finished with a time of 12.44, quickly after this came Amelie Taylor finishing 133rd with a time of 12.52, which is an excellent achievement due to the fact that she was the youngest in the field! Molly Howell, who continues to improve, came 138th and continues to excel, her time was 12.58. Eva Marshall then finished the West Suffolk Wild Cats entrants in 13.15, with a finishing place of 160. This result doesn’t give a true example of her capabilities, as she is recovering from an illness.

Chloe Cavill headed the West Suffolk entrants under 15’s 4K, coming in 96th place and a time of 16.11 minutes. Rebecca Morley ran strongly finishing in 110th with a time of 16.22. Caitlin McKay finished in 207, 20.28, this was Caitlin’s first race and was battling difficulties with her hips. We expect her to improve greatly in her future races!

In the under 17 men’s race Cameron Ackroyd had the best result of the day from West Suffolk, coming home in 41st place and a time of 21.51 for a 6k race! Oscar Hedge finished in 147th and a time of 25.41 and the last in the trio was Callum Long, finishing close behind Oscar in 150th and a time of 25.47.

To conclude West Suffolk’s day out in Brighton James Preston ran a hard 8k finishing in the top 150, followed in by Adam Crawford concluding the results for West Suffolk!

Christine Anthony was due to compete in the senior women’s race but unfortunately had to pull out due to injury.

West Suffolk’s next outing will be at the English National Cross Country event at Parliament Hill, London.

West Suffolk AC entered the Eastern Counties cross country championships with a team of “Wild cats”.
This is the first time in 20 years that our under 13 and under 15 girls have taken part in this competition.
The under 13 girls team consisted of Lila Battell, Lorna Coull, Eva Marshall, Marni Sillitoe, Molly Howell and Lulu Lawson.
The club had a very successful day at the races with Lila Battell becoming the first ever winner From West Suffolk AC, Lorna Coull had a good run finishing a very close third, Eva Marshall finished strongly for the West Suffolk team to be their third place finisher followed by Marni Sillitoe and Molly Howell and Lulu Lawson, in her very first race for the club, also finished well.
This effort was good enough to give the team the race winner and the team trophy.
The under 15 girls did not have a team but both Libby Stinson and Amber Walton performed well, Amber was hindered by an administration error and was not allowed to finish. Libby had a good race and had the fastest finish of all the runners. Joe Bradford was the only runner for the under 15 boys he had a good run and finished well but had no backup from his team mates.
All in all a good day out for the West Suffolk team.

If you want to compete in either the SEAA (Brighton) or the National Cross Country Championships (Parliament Hill), and many have said they do, you will need to pay for these events in the club hut BEFORE 9th December.

As in previous years, £10 each covers entry fees and coach booking, refundable on the coach to those who compete.

I will need to spend time making these entries (in alphabetical order for one race forsooth!) and cannot take late entries though people can enter themselves: up to 15th December for SEAA and up to 12th January for the National.

I can’t promise mud on the Brighton course, but Parly Hill usually delivers………

Senior Men should be warned: at the SEAA race it’s 15K on a very hilly course.​

Yours

David Cripps MIHM

West Suffolk AC have been allocated one place at next years London Marathon on April 22nd 2018.

If you are keen to take up this place, please could you let either Gordon Palmer, Christine Anthony or Dave Cripps know by Monday November 14