TAVISTOCK Run Project’s Oliver Smart produced a strong run at Temple Newsam in Leeds on Saturday to claim the bronze medal in the men’s long course race at the BUCS Cross Country Championships.
Smart helped the University of Birmingham to a clean sweep of the medals and the team prize, with his team-mates Will Barnicoat, the European U23 cross country champion, and Tomer Tarragona finishing first and second.
Smart had come fourth the previous year in the men’s short course race at Greenford.
Temple Newsam is clearly a venue he enjoys running at as it was where he won the intermediate boys’ race at the English Schools’ Cross Country Championships in 2019.
The English Schools’ Championships will again be in West Yorkshire this year, taking place at Pontefract on March 16.
A number of Armada athletes will head to that event in confident mood after impressing at the South West Schools’ Cross Country Championships at RNAS Merryfield at the weekend.
City of Plymouth’s Holly Reid, representing Cornwall, claimed the bronze medal in a strong senior girls’ race which was won by European U20 champion Innes Fitgerald.
Tavistock’s Charlotte Walker was just behind in fifth place as Devon easily won the team prize with three athletes in the top five and four in the top nine. The county’s strength in depth in that age group should give them a chance of medalling at the English Schools’ Championships.
Erme Valley and Ivybridge Community College athlete Matthew Gilvear continued his strong season with a sixth-placed finish in the senior boys’ race.
Team-mate Luke Hayes just missed out on the top 10 in the intermediate boys’ race, finishing 12th, while DHSG’s Zoe Bigham (11th) and Elsie Goodspeed (14th) were both in the top 15 of the junior girls’ race and Tor Bridge’s Finley Eales (13th) was also in the top 15 of the minor boys’ race.
Full results can be found HERE.