Fifteen Bicester athletes made the journey to London for the recent English National Cross Country Championships held at the iconic venue of Parliament Hill Fields. Many of these along with family and supporters travelled up by coach on the morning of the race. Few sporting competitions bring together the mixture of talents like a national cross country championships. Each of the races start at the bottom of Hampstead Heath by the lido. With every race having a starting list of at least 200 athletes extending to 1800 starters in the senior men’s race, the runners of each race are lined across the course at the start reminiscent of the grand national. Their first challenge on this most demanding of courses is the opening hill. In a first for the national, the organisers introduced a tour de France like king/queen of the mountains competition for the first runner to reach the top of the opening hill. One of the prizes was a red and white polka dot jersey but in order to win the prize the first runner to the top of the climb had to finish the race as well. There are few more spectacular cross country sights than the seething mass of runners at the bottom of the hill jostling for position as the course starts to narrow at the top of the climb. Getting a good start is everything in a national championships held at Parliament Hill Fields. Thankfully the weather was dry on the day but the winter had already left its mark on the course with ground conditions very heavy on most parts of the course and the ground conditions continued to deteriorate throughout the afternoon as the hundreds of runners from previous races churned up the course. For the Bicester runners that raced, just finishing was meritorious in itself. Each runner had to demonstrate real character and determination and every one of the Bicester athletes were winners on the day in their own right.
Bicester AC was the only Oxfordshire club that completed teams in the junior races completing three teams in three separate races. Megan Surman was Bicester AC’s sole representative in the under 13 girl’s race run over 3km. Surman joined the club at the back end of the 2023 Summer season so this is only her second full season of cross country. Having showed initial promise last season she has grown increasingly in confidence and was an individual medalist at this year’s Oxfordshire Cross Country Championships. Running in her first national cross country championships Surman ran a very smart race. She was still running strongly as she descended the final tricky hill before turning left into the final straight. Picking up further places in the finishing straight Surman crossed the line in a superb 106th out of the 275 finishers clocking 15mins 24secs.
Bicester AC’s junior men’s team were without their talisman, Owen Stocker, who has had to call time on this cross country season due to injury. However Bicester were still able to complete a team and they finished a superb 10th. In the absence of Stocker it was Joshua Moran, one of Bicester’s most consistent runners this winter, who picked up the mantle leading the team in 142nd clocking 44mins 09secs for the 10km distance. The junior men’s race was one of the most competitive in the championships and as first year juniors, Bicester’s athletes were the youngest in this age group by up to three years. Noah Gulvin, despite struggling for grip in the conditions, managed to keep going for 167th in a time of 44mins 09secs. Joshua Moran’s twin brother Isaac has had a somewhat truncated season due to injury so he did well to master the conditions to finish in 172nd (48mins 42secs). And Finlay Kerr, who is in his first season of cross country, did well to get round in 184th clocking 52mins 29secs to complete the team scorers.
Bicester AC’s under 3 boy’s team finished 30th. Harry Cruikshank is in his first season for Bicester and he handled the conditions well coming home in 221st with a 15mins 10secs clocking for the 3km circuit. Cameron Waters was next in for Bicester running well for 281st in 16mins 22secs. It was an eventful race for Charlie Joiner who was spiked during the race and this impacted on his race but he still managed to finish in 290th (16mins 44secs). Closing the team scorers was Ivan Stocker who did well to finish in 310th with 18mins 22secs.
Bicester’s 3rd team completion was in the under 15 girl’s run over a 4km course. Ella Myers – Finnegan, who competed in the 2022 national championships also held at Parliament Hill Fields, brought all her experience to bear to run an accomplished race finishing 212th in 22mins 44secs . The other Bicester AC competitors found the going tough but all made it to the finish line. Erin Griffiths, who has mixed cross country with sportshall competition, was running astride with teammate Emelie Stocker at the end of first lap when she slipped and ended up on the deck. However she picked up herself and made good progress on the 2nd lap to finish 299th (28mins 42secs). Stocker was further behind Griffiths but did well to keep going and finish 302nd (30mins 39secs). Madison Joiner did not enjoy the course but she too did well to finish in 304th clocking 32mins 36secs. The team finished 30th.
Paul Jones was Bicester’s sole competitor in the senior men’s run over 12km. In two minds before the race as to whether he had the fitness to go for the complete distance, Jones decided to finish his race after lap two. Bicester AC coach Richard Gould was running for his first claim club, Alchester Running Club and Gould notched up another top thousand finish as he crossed the line in 905th (64mins 16secs) out of the 1,783 finishers.
There was just one Bicester runner in the under 15 boy’s race. Max Finnegan acquitted himself quite well to finish 253rd clocking 18mins 59secs for the 4km course finishing in front of 90 runners in the process.