This weekend saw St. Helens Sutton A.C. athletes head across the Pennines to take on the Northern Cross Country Championships at Pontefract. Due to cold conditions throughout the week they were met with unusually firm footing on the gruelling course.
First out for Sutton where the U13 Boys duo of Gabriel Mullen (127th) and Joseph Colley (180th). Next up was the U15 Boys with first home for the club and making the top 100 of the high-quality field was Joseph Byrne (84th), followed by Michael Dobson (120th), Andrew Worthington (175th) and Michael Duffy (198th) rounded out a good team performance. In the U17 Men, Charlie Roberts had a great run finishing in 50th, followed home to complete the U17 duo by Michael Brussels (129th).
As they headed towards the end of the day and the ground had begun to be churned up by the junior races, the senior woman took to their 8k course, Gemma Connolly had a great run even managing to unleash the not often seen Connolly sprint finish to come home in 51st out of a 376. And on her Cross Country debut Jade Smith, though perhaps slightly eager in the early stages showed great strength in 190th.
Finally, a trio of Sutton’s senior men took to the course in a field of over 700 club runners. First home for the club after travelling North from London was John Appleton (268th), quickly followed by Andy Wilson (286th), with the team rounded out by Andrew O’Connor (634th).
Report by Matthew Crehan.
