Abbey powers home!!!
Another winter Sunday, another Derby Runner Cross Country League race and another decisive victory for Abbey Van Dijk in the women’s race at Grace Dieu on Sunday. In the more competitive Leicestershire division of the league Abbey’s margin of victory over the next finisher was still a significant one. For the women’s team it was a race where new names contributed to the team performance with Becky Lenaghan in 109th, Helen Clarke in 168th and Julianne Walters in 172nd the other team scorers with the resilient Pauline Cooper completing the Club’s finishers in the women’s race.
Chris Pearson, in possibly his best cross country performance of the season, was first back for the Club in the men’s race with a 15th place finish edging out Andy Hawtin, who is putting together a great series of cross races, in 22nd. The ever reliable Mark Harriott was next in an excellent 55th with Mikey Walters, arguably producing the Club performance of the day, in 85th getting the better, on this occasion, of fellow senior, Shane Chapman in 89th. The consistent Andy Orme was next in a solid 129th with Ross Ballinger and Hector Arenas giving everything over a very technical course, to complete the Club’s men’s team finishers in 144th and 147th places respectively. It was great to see two of the Club’s more seasoned runners finish in relatively close order as Steve Leafe and Colin Mee collected the 161st and 165th place finishing tokens with Chris Elsegood and Andy Meadows, continuing his cross country education, in 192nd and 208th places respectively. Kevin Clarke showed all of his racing experience to finish in 220th with the determined Dave Walters completing the Club’s finishers in the men’s race.
