CITY of Plymouth’s Holly Reid retained her Cornwall Schools’ Cross Country title on Saturday with a dominant victory at Newquay.
Reid, who had come fifth in the under-17 race at the South West Regional Championships the week before, won the intermediate girls’ event at Tretharras School by a minute-and-a-half.
Her Saltash Community School team-mate Abbie Chapman, who was the junior girls’ champion last year, finished third on Saturday, having just moved up an age group.
The Devon Schools’ Cross Country Championships will be held this weekend at Exeter.
City of Plymouth’s Molly Shorey will be in confident mood after two impressive runs within the space of a week.
She finished fourth in the under-17 race at the South West Regional Championships at Ilton and then on Sunday won the same age group category at the latest Westward Cross Country League meeting at a waterlogged Westward Ho!
The under-17 girls once again ran with the senior women and Shorey was only beaten by overall women’s winner Kirstie Booth.
City of Plymouth actually had the top five under-17 girls at Westward Ho!
Molly Gilbey finished second, with Martha Wilson third, Bella May fourth and Phoebe Timson fifth. Tavistock AC’s Freya Page was sixth.
Tavistock’s Jo Meek was second in the senior women’s race behind Taunton’s Booth. Team-mate Nikki Kelly was third senior, with City of Plymouth’s Hannah Blair fifth and Tavistock’s Sam Lake ninth.
There was a good run in wet conditions at Westward Ho! by Tavistock AC’s Fynn Baker, who won the under-15 boys’ race, having finished seventh the week before at the South West Championships. His club colleague Noah Reid was fifth on Sunday.
There was another Westward League victory for City of Plymouth’s Jazz Jackman in the under-11 girls’ race. Tilly Day was fifth in the same event.
Tavistock’s Thomas Hennessey, who claimed a bronze medal in under-13 boys’ event at the South West Championships, was fourth in the tricky conditions at Westward Ho! on Sunday. His team-mate Freddy Whybrow was seventh, City of Plymouth’s Finley Bennett eighth and Tavistock’s Archie Neale ninth.
There were also fourth place finishes in north Devon for Erme Valley Harriers’ Charlie Milward and City of Plymouth’s Finley Eales.
Milward’s came in the under-17 boys’ race, while Eales took fourth in the under-11 boys’ event, where his City of Plymouth team-mates Lucas Sweeney and Sebastian Travers also finished in the top 10.
Valley’s Isabella Trowell and Tavistock AC’s Anya McAulay were also in the top 10 in the under-15 girls’ race.
Tavistock AC’s Ben Neale finished ninth in a the senior men’s race that was won by Phil Wylie, with Bideford’s Ronnie Richmond second.
Meanwhile further afield, Erme Valley Harriers’ international Will Battershill guested in the Australian World Cross Country Trials at Stromlo Forest Park, where he finished ninth in a strong field and in summer conditions.
On the track, City of Plymouth’s Henry Curtis continued his indoor season by finishing second in the 60m hurdles at the Northern Athletics Championships in Sheffield – the city where he is now studying. Curtis clocked a season’s best time of 8.30 seconds.