Bea Wood wins major cross country title

City of Salisbury’s Bea Wood added another national title to her impressive collection when she produced a brilliant win in the English Schools’ intermediate cross country at Sefton Park in Liverpool, writes John Ruskin.

City of Salisbury's Bea Wood (left) wins the English Schools' Inter XC (photo: Gary Domoney)

Over a 3.8k course she romped home in 12min 22sec after another excellent run that left Kiya Dee from Gloucestershire and Beth Cook from Sussex trailing her by three and ten seconds respectively.

In the 3k junior event, Sophie Nicholls contested a very close finish that ended in a dead heat for first and second places in 11min 3sec by rivals from Shropshire and Cumbria, just ahead of her well deserved third spot in 11.7.

Salisbury's Sophie Nicholls (third left) on the podium (photo: Gary Domoney)

Bea and Sophie’s achievements qualify them for England vests in an international event this weekend that may not happen because of the virus outbreak.

Bella Worsley took 78th place in Bea Wood’s race; Lukas Bailey was 178th in the intermediate boys’ and in the senior boys’ event, Bertie Petit was 153rd and Will Morris 203rd.

At the Milton Keynes 20mile, one of the few other events to go ahead last weekend, coach Craig Weatherburn finished in a good 2hours 16min 47sec, his best at the distance. Richard Larcombe stopped the clock at 2.29.35, Mike White 2.30.23 and Zoe Lambard with a personal best 2.50.02.

In the Bath half marathon, Chris Maple also secured a pb with 1.27.56 and Poppy Langdon-Down was timed at 1.28.16.