Bea takes counties win and roadrunners scoop batch of personal bests

Running for Wiltshire in the Inter Counties cross country championships at Loughborough, City of Salisbury’s star prospect Bea Wood scored another great win over her arch rival Bethany Cook, writes John Ruskin.

Salisbury's Bea Wood prepares to celebrate as she crosses the line first at Loughborough (photo: Grace Cousins)

Competing in the 5.3k race for under 17’s in mudbath conditions, she was timed at 20min 59sec for a vital margin of 11sec to take the top honours at the front of a field of 270.

Sophie Nicholls did well for 30th place among the under 15’s and Lukas Bailey was 103rd in his race.

For the under 13’s, Charlie Coles came 139th and Isaac Routledge 243rd while in the girls’ race Olivia Glover took 160th and Neve Cousins 289th.

In the seniors, Sian Thomas placed 110th and Rich Ayling was 209th.

City of Salisbury athletes prepare to take on 13.1 miles (credit: Jon Kershaw)

At Woking, some 3,000 roadrunners at the Surrey half marathon took advantage of much faster conditions underfoot and among them were 14 from City of Salisbury, ten of them coming away with new personal best performances to celebrate.

The quickest of the blue vests was James Hassan, less than fully fit but still able to clock 1hour 22min 38sec.

Next was coach Craig Weatherburn with a big pb of 1.25.50, setting the standard for a following quartet of bests from Marc Hankins in 1.29.29, Steve Mitchell 1.34.30, Jonathan Kershaw 1.34.31 and Derek Wood 1.38.51.

Catherine Morgan-Smith stopped the watch at 1.38.57pb, then came Linda Robson who set yet another new mark of 1.45.43 and took second place in her age group.

Mel Murphy’s 1.49.13 took second spot in her slightly younger age group too, then came Grace Cousins 1.50.15pb, Jackie Hassan 1.51.45pb, Helen Carlton 1.53.26pb, Derek Brown 2.18.28 and Paul Brown 2.18.29.

In the Larmer Tree 20 mile, Richard Larcombe was tenth overall with a 3hours 2mins 46sec run and at the 12k Rockbourne trail race over the downs, Miranda Naish was second lady in 71min 21sec.

Finally, at the British Masters’ indoor championships at Lee Valley, Richard Davidson continued his good form when he took the age group bronze medal in the 3,000m with a new personal best time of 9min 55.5sec.