A group of nine Shettleston athletes travelled to Sefton park, Liverpool, this weekend to compete at the British Athletics Cross Challenge Liverpool (also hosting the European Cross Country Championships trial).
The hustle and bustle of liverpool and kinder milder conditons from last year meant a great atmosphere…and the perfect mud bath!
Katie Burns and Matthew Fox were first to compete in their respective U15 races. Both ran solid races to be well up in field of high class athletes, Matthew in 26th place and Katie 107th.
Next up was the Senior Women. The club fielded a team of five athletes led by Aoife Carr, Hannah Terrance, Ruth Joss, Avril Mason and Emma Baird. The Senior Shettleston Women’s team had been selected to represent Scotland at the event following their success at Cumbernauld at the National Cross Country relays in October. Joined on the start line by both European champions and Olympians alike the girls were next to storm round the undulating course. Early reports following their cool down confirmed that the girls won and have subsequently been selected as the British club to represent UKA at the European Champion Club Cross Country Cup held in Spain in February 2023.
The final race saw the stampede of the senior mens race, with over 600 runners. Jamie Burns, dawning the Scotland vest representing Scotland in the U23 team, and Syed Taha Ghafari in the Shettleston blue and gold both flew round the course in what was a highly competitive 9.8k race.
Huge congratulations to all athletes who made the trip, an easier week for all athletes surely before the spikes are back on next week at West District Cross Country Championships!
Full results
Thanks to Avril Mason for the report
