Sophie makes it a winning hat-trick
Updated: Dec 11, 2019
Young Sophie Nicholls from the City of Salisbury running club made it three wins in three outings with a great run in the Hampshire cross country league fixture at Aldershot, writes John Ruskin.
In the under 15’s 4k race, she was the best of 50 competitors and took first place in 16min 48sec, just ahead of rivals from Winchester and Southampton. Bella Rees was 31st.
Sian Thomas again led the ladies team in 12th spot, with Ruth Holloway 30th, Katie Clements 103rd and Louise Webb 117th.
Best of the men were Shaun Brown 59th, Andy Holme 84th, Eddy O’Gorman 86th and Henry Dix 106th.
In the under 13’s, Toby Hawsley was 48th and Jamie Harris 64th.
At Portsmouth in the Victory 5mile road race, over 80 Salisbury entrants competed for team places, producing a cascade of personal bests(*).
Stuart Holloway led the way for the A team in 26min 55sec, followed by junior Benedict Saunby 27.39*, Richard Davidson 28.29* and Lee Syrett 29.01*.
For the B team it was Matt Sherfield’s 29.18* at the top, then came Mike Brewster 29.40, James Hassan 29.41* and Peter Callanan 30.15*.
Jonathan Croom was quickest in the C quartet with 30.37*, followed by coach Craig Weatherburn 31.01*, Yohan Decis 31.07 and Iain Weber 31.24.
A trio of new marks came from the ladies’ A team: Ruth Holloway with 31.08*, Sam Hibdige 32.40* and Sarah Brewster 35.05*.
The B team comprised Victoria Thomas 37.03, Aly Sloane 37.40 and Katie Clements 38.00.
Linda Robson extended her string of personal bests to four in five races, with 38.25* to lead the C team, with Jackie Hassan 39.27*and Jane Whiteley 40.01 completing the points scorers.
The D teams were Chris Maple 31.50*, Marc Hankins 31.53*, Al Moutray 31.56* and Mike White 32.06*; and Mel Murphy 40.18, Helen Carlton 40.37* and Lisa Milner 40.58*.
Jo Fotheringham completed the Salisbury list when she finished inside the hour with 59.12*, an improvement of over three minutes.
Full results are on the event websites (linked below)
Hampshire Cross Country League here
Victory 5 mile Road Race here
+ photo credits James Ballard, Carol Chlebowski, Craig Weatherburn