Warrington runners at English Schools Cross Country race

Gregory – one of seven Warrington Athletics Club runners representing the county in Leeds – finished 50th in a large junior girls’ field on a quagmire of a course as the inclement weather took hold.

Her time of 11mins 21secs saw her finish as the fourth counter for the Cheshire team, who took the victory on 272 points.

Jess Connolly also ran well to finish 156th in the intermediate girls’ race as Cheshire Girls won the Durham Trophy in the overall team competition for medium-sized counties.

In what was his first year in the senior boys age group, Joe Buckley performed superbly and was in the top 25 for much of the race before dropping back to finish 35th in 23mins 3secs. Teammate Ben Webb worked his way through to come home 202nd.

Joe Buckley strives for the finish line

The tightly-packed starts claimed several victims including Warrington clubmates Isaaq Ataullah and Joe Roberts, who both tripped in the same incident in the intermediate boys’ race.

Both got up to record good finishes as they come home 202nd and 213th respectively, with Ataullah posting a time of 19mins 17secs and Roberts finishing five seconds later.

Erik Marshall stayed clear of the mayhem at the start of the junior boys race and worked his way through the field to finish in 15mins 8secs, which was good enough for 138th place.

Meanwhile, Colin Bishop competed in much sunnier weather while enjoying a holiday in Cyprus.

He won the V55 category at the Paphos 10km road race, with his time of 36mins 25secs placing him an impressive sixth overall.

Colin Bishop after competing in Cyprus

Much further afield, Jack Green continued the excellent form he has shown since moving to Australia for work.

He beat his personal best 1500m time in his latest outing, stopping the clock at 4mins 1sec while competing in the Bankstown invitational ‘A’ race.

Jack Green, white bib, on his way to a personal best 1500m time. Picture by ITBPro