This year’s national cross country championships took place recently in Sedgefield which is in the North east of England. This area was a bastion of UK long distance running in the 70’s and 80s notably through the efforts of Steve Cram, Brendan Foster, Charlie Spedding and Mike Macleod.
The national cross country championships has a rich heritage and comprises a number of races covering age groups from under 13 upwards attracting runners from across the country. Bicester AC have never had a top 3 placing in the national cross country championships. Leo Blyton, Bicester’s sole representative, was hoping to change this in the under 15 boy’s race
The under 15 boy’s event attracted 261 runners and was contested over a 4km course. Blyton is no stranger to success on the national stage and is a reigning national schools cross country champion.
This year Blyton has been prominent in cross challenge series events, which attracts some of the country’s leading cross country performers, as well as the Chiltern League. In the latter event he has come up against stiff competition from Bracknell’s Elliott Langley-Aybar who was one of his chief rivals in this event.
It proved to be a race dominated by Southern based runners. Just three runners broke the 12 minute barrier with Hercules Wimbledon’s Theo Creed coming out on top securing the title with an 11mins 52secs clocking. It was a closely fought contest for 2nd place but Blyton was given the verdict over Brighton’s Taylor Thom Watts, Both were credited with 11mins 56secs. And thus Blyton becomes the first Bicester AC runner in history to make a top three place in the national cross country championships. Furthermore he managed to beat Langley-Aybar, who had pipped him to the Chiltern League title, for the first time this season. Langley-Aybar was 4th in 12mins 05secs.