Adams takes bronze medal at Inter-Counties Championships
ATHLETICS
COMPETING as an U15 athlete in his very first year in the age group, Stratford AC’s Alex Adams won the bronze medal at the Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships at Prestwold Hall in Loughborough, reports Paul Hawkins.
Adams, part of a nine-strong club contingent, was looking to build on his fourth-placed finish as an U13 athlete last year and came into the 4.3km race in good form.
He stayed with the leading group from the start before England champion Lewis Sullivan and Chris Perkins opened up a gap.
Ultimately, Sullivan maintained his unbeaten season to win, with Perkins coming home in second.
The next three athletes battling for the bronze medal were neck and neck for the rest of the race.
Adams bided his time until the final 250m where he surged away up the hill to pull ahead and finish third in 14:45, seven seconds behind Perkins, but a clear four seconds ahead of Ethan Scott in fourth and Ben Peck in fifth.
After the race, Adams said: “It was a very tough race in a high-quality field. I gave everything in the last 100m or so to get away and come in front of Ben for the first time and to podium.
"The conditions were good, but a muddy course made it hard to get into a nice rhythm, but that’s the joy of cross country.”
Before that, the first Stratford runner was Owain Jones (171st, 43:33) in the U20 men’s race where he maintained a good pace throughout.
Next up were Niamh Hillard and Maddie Linfoot racing in the U13 girls’s race over a 3.4km course.
Both started off at a steady pace in the middle of the pack in a big field of over 300 runners.
Hillard kept the pace going well to finish 94th in 15:49 while Linfoot (149th, 16:19) faded a little.
The next race was the U17 women’s where there were two Stratford AC runners among the 272 finishing the 5.3km course.
Georgie Campbell finished 19th in 22:36 to lead the Warwickshire team home while Ellen Taylor came home 208th in 27:07.
In the 6km U20 women’s race, Daisy Musk (110th, 32:25) continued her excellent season by coming second for the Warwickshire team after a committed run in the deteriorating conditions.
The final Stratford athletes were in the U15 girls’s race ran over 4.3km.
Charly Marshall finished 93rd in 19:01 and Olivia Robinson came home in 226th, clocking 20:49.
