From Petra Bijsterveld…

Photo credit Pic2Go

The English National Cross Country Championships rotate between venues in the North and South of England. 2023 was the turn for the North, and with the Harewood Estate unable to host the event the organisers found a new venue, Bolesworth Castle, which is a large country house with a surrounding estate located 10 miles south of Chester.

Our day did not quite get off to the smooth early start we would have liked. The organisation of the car parking, situated at the far end of the estate, caused a huge tailback on the approach road and this remained the case throughout the day. As Athletics Weekly put it: ‘Overall, the sweeping scenic surrounds of the castle grounds offered up some excellent terrain even if the remoteness of the venue threw up a few complaints being far removed from public transport facilities. Apart from its remoteness, the other complaint was the car parking – huge queues along the approaching A41 into the venue meant while even those that did get to the start did so with little time to warm up and walk the course. The organisers at the Castle felt they could easily cope with 5000 vehicles but the lack of public transport meant far more people arrived by car than normal.’

My anxiety of being stuck in traffic was compounded by a rather odd (considering it’s a largely flat area of the UK) patchiness in mobile coverage in the area which made communication complicated. Thankfully between various people we managed to get the tent and flag up and the numbers collected in time for the first races of the day at 11:00.

The course was not hugely exciting. There was no mud to speak of, let alone any water jumps like at Wollaton Park, and there were no hills either. Total elevation gain on my 5.3 mile course (a bit more than the advertised 8K – call it value for money) was only 282 feet. Endless grassy loops going either slightly up or slightly down made for a fast course, but ‘deceptively tough’ as Athletics Weekly described it, which was also the considered opinion of all Ilkley Harriers who ran. There was also a fairly strong icy wind to contend with, which as ever seemed to be against us on the inclines.

9 Ilkley Harriers (6 seniors, 3 juniors) ran this year. Emily Gibbins had the best result in terms of ranking, coming 28^th in the junior women’s race. Beth Rogers, Oscar Shinn and Sarah Pickering all came within the top 25% of their respective races. Jon Greenwell, who joined the Harriers relatively recently, did a valiant job representing the Ilkley men as a team of 1.

Overall attendance was down compared to previous years, perhaps the relative remoteness had discouraged runners, though some of the major clubs still arrived with literally a coach load of athletes. For me the event did not quite provide the excitement of other Nationals, and certainly was only a pale imitation of the championships when they take place on Parliament Hill in London. Nevertheless, I enjoyed watching some of the fastest runners in England in action. Nice to bump into Georgia Malir who came a brilliant 15^th in the Senior Women’s race.

Results

Senior Men (12k)

(1  36:01 James Kingston, Tonbridge AC)

916 51:05 Jon Greenwell

1472 ran

 

Junior Men (10k)

(1  31:40 Will Barnicoat, Aldershot, Farnham and District)

87 36:42 Edward Hobbs

167 ran

 

Senior Women (8k)

(1  29:28 Sarah Astin, Belgrave Harriers)

190 36:32 Sarah Pickering

569 45:53 Petra Bijsterveld

773 ran

 

Junior Women (6k)

(1  23:18 Beatrice Wood, City of Salisbury AC)

27 25:18 Emily Gibbins

128 ran

 

U17 Women (5k)

(1  17:11 Innes Fitzgerald, Exeter Harriers)

42 20:19 Beth Rogers

202 ran

 

U17 Men (6k)

(1  20:39 Henry Dover, Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers)

89 23:34 Archie Budding (junior club)

247 ran

 

U15 boys

(1  14:40 Owen Ulfig, Wolverhampton and Bilston)

65 16:04 Oscar Shinn (junior club)

194 17:25 Oliver Holder (junior club)

289 ran