Regional InterCounties - Croydon Saturday 10 Decemnber 2011
Emily Hosker Thornhill & Rebecca Weston (both in top 10) are half the Kent gold medal team
Bobby Clay continues winning streak
Charlotte Grandfield 1st IEK Senior Female in Kent vest for 10 years
James Pitcher & Emily McKane mark their Kent debuts
| Ten IEK athletes were selected to represent Kent at the annual Regional InterCounties Championships at Croydon with Anna Weston (u-15) and Emily Hosker Thornhill (u-20) the only 2 of 6 IEK who raced this event last year, both improving in style on last year’s good performances
2nd Kent finisher despite losing a spiked shoe half way round, Emily was up to 7th from 19th last year, while Anna (5th Kent last year in 30th) was now 2nd Kent girl as she moved up to 11th despite moving up an age group and racing against older opposition The 4-strong Kent u-20 Women’s team also saw the return of Rebecca Weston, in only her 3rd or 4th cross-country race in 2 years, finish 8th to help Kent win team |
gold, well ahead of Hampshire and Sussex The u-15 Kent team, dominated by IEK Red Sparrows, was 5th behind Hampshire and ahead of Bedfordshire, despite storming runs by Bobby Clay - continuing her remarkable winning streak against the best in the country – Anna Weston (2nd Kent girl in 11th) and Lilly Coward (60th) the 6th Kent girl to finish and only 30 seconds adrift of Anna Making their debut in a Kent Royal blue vest and all making strong claims to one of the 8 places in the Kent team for the National InterCounties in March were James Pitcher (u-15) Emily McKane (u-17) and Senior Woman Charlotte Grandfield – James (30) was Kent’s 3rd, Emily (24) was Kent’s 4th and Charlotte, our first |
Senior Woman to reach this level in 10 year was Kent’s 6th finisher in 33rd place Luke Dawson was 19th u-17 Man and 5th Kent finisher in a tough age group while Alex Clay (also u-17) fresh from her debut win in the Kent XC League one week earlier, confirmed true cross-country pedigree, leading Kent to 4th team when finishing 3rd individual, only 2 seconds away from silver and within 30 seconds of the country’s leading female Jessica Judd from Essex Amy Old & Ellie Hume are the unluckiest IEK athletes - both selected for the original squad, but both sidelined with a heavy cold only two days before the race. Barney Howard's recent Kent League form - top 10 three times, 6th in the latest - means he was reserve |