Midland Womens Cross Country League

At Cheltenham on Saturday, the same day as the womens teams were winning the Midland Womens League, the Telford Athletic Club's mens team were also putting together one of their best ever performances to round off the club's best cross country season since the club was founded in 1976, to add to the Midland titles and the Shropshire Young Athletes League title.

Kim Green (45)was the second scorer in 5th place  with Louise Taylor (46)10th,  Sian Davies(47) 16th and Nellie(178) 25th.

Aqueduct's Claire Martin finished a superb 3rd behind winner Laura kenney,22.13, who last week finished 3rd in the British University Championships in Stirling, leading her Loughborough team to second place behind winners Birmingham Univ and second placed Jemma Phillips,22.25, running as a guest. Claire's 3rd place in 22.41 gave her the overall league gold medal for the first time in her career. The Telford postie who had done her postal round that morning with a 5 am start so that she could fit in this race had two 3rd places ,a fith and a win to her credit giving her the overall title.She now fits in a 10k road race this week end before looking for a good run in the National Cross Country Championships in London the following week.

Kim Green, from Madeley, took the overall silver medal finishing 5th in the final race in 23.18, showing great consistency after winning the overall title last season. Louise Taylor, in her first cross country season for Telford has improved with each race as she finished a superb 10th on Saturday in 24.05, just 8 seconds behind 8th. Sian Davies, cheered on by Commonwealth Games bound brother Chris ran well for 16th in 24.43 whilst Denise Sanders was the 5th veteran in 25.47, 25th overall. Jane Hailey in 90th, 32.30 and Lisa Blagden 91st, 32.36 completed the Telford AC line up.

On the day Telford and Loughborough both scored 18 team points but Telford's third scorer was 10th with Loughborough's 11th giving them a win on the day. But it was the overall league title that the Telford squad were after and they won the league with 91 points whilst Loughborough were second with 107 and Newcastle back in third on 211 points.

Claire(44) also won gold in the individuals with Kim(45) taking silver.

Birmingham Cross Country League Men.

A tremendous team performance at Cheltenham saw Telford finish 6th on the day and consolidate their overall 6th position in Division One the highest overall position that the club have ever finished in the top division. Despite Chris Davies, who decided not to race due to a slight injury niggle and Midland Champion Chris Rimmer having to withdraw through injury the club still put in a supreb team performance. Nick Andrews who has been improving with every race this season after a consistent period of quality training finished a brilliant 14th in 30.50 just 8 seconds away from a top 10 place, improving 10 places on his best previous position in January. The quality in this league is such that Telford AC can count on one hand the number of athletes who have ever finished in the top 10 in this Division.

The race was won by Richard Kay of Birmingham University, 4th in last weeks British University Championships, in 29.30 with Tipton's Phil Hinch second in 29.41 and Coventry's Matt Lole 3rd in 29.54.

Paul Ward, improved from 40th in the last race to 23rd this time in 31.21 just ahead of Tom Bailey, 6th in this years RAF Championhsips, who finished 25th in 31.26. Dan Lewis was 36th in 32.00 whilst Wayne Dashper, fresh from Royal Marines training in Arctic Norway, was 48th in 32.32. Will Joyce completed the scoring 6 in 53rd in 32.48.

Telford AC's other finishers were Rick Hailey 67th in 33.25, Kevin Fisher 82nd in 33.57, Peter Plant 89th in 34.32, Malcolm Dawes 123rd in 37.13, Lee Aston 140th in 39.48 and Dave Green 149th in 42.04.

Birmingham University won the race with 4 in the first 8 and just 68 team points winning the overall league title and the magnificent Mercury Shield by almost 100 points from second placed Loughborough University. Loughborough were second on the day with hosts Cheltenham taking 3rd Coventry were 4th whislt overall third placed Tipton were 5th just 40 points ahead of 6th placed Telford who in turn were 100 points ahead of 7th placed Severn on the day and almost 200 points ahead of 7th placed Stoke overall.

Full on the day placings with overall league points and positions in brackets.

1. Birmingham Univ 68. (298 - 1st)
2. Loughborough Univ 121. (393 - 2nd)
3. Cheltenham 149. (901 - 5th)
4. Coventry 157. (862 - 4th)
5. Tipton 158. (479 - 3rd)
6. Telford AC 199. (1136 - 6th)
7. Severn 289. (1566 - 9th)
8. Stoke 314. (1314 - 7th)
9. Owls (Leicester) 342. (1425 - 8th)
10. Halesowen 357. (1587 - 10th)
11. Leamington 430. (1618 - 11th)
12. Kidderminster & Stourport 448. (1715 - 12th)
13. Staffordshire Moorlands 584. (2063 - 13th)