OWLS A.C. Leicester

The season’s biggest club event provided some of the club’s athletes the chance to test themselves against the nations best athletes. Held at the hilly Roundhay Park in Leeds, the Under 17 men got the ball rolling, placing 20th in the country. Niall McSharry and Ash Chambers recorded the same time, with the former just edging it, claiming 113th and 114th places respecitvely. The team was completed by Rupert Radley and Jake Boat.

The sole representative for the Under 15 boys was Jack Barber, making a good debut at National level to finish 243th, and cap a strong season for the youngster.

The Under 20 Men’s hope of a medal had been dealt a severe blow with recent International debutant Josh Norman becoming the third member of the squad to pull out injured. In his absence, bottom age Sam Stabler followed up his exceptional 4th place at Under 17 level last year to be first counter, placing 36th. After leading the race early on, Danny Hallam finished a solid 47th. An ever improving Lewis Smart came in 76th, with Paddy Radley rounding off inside the top hundred coming 94th. The team placed a solid 9th, although with everyone fully fit this could well have been a different story.

The Senior Men’s race held high expectations for Gaz Davies, but struggling with a foot injury he placed 146th after being in contention in the top 40 for the first half of the race. First counter was Paul Miles; after two outings indoors in Februrary over 3,000m and clocking 8:13.07 in Belfast, Paul was able to finish 81st. Tom Meakin had a strong run to be thrid counter, coming in 177^th, with Mike Davies 774^th and Andy Radley 936^th. Unfortunately Jay Williams had to drop out after struggling with achilles trouble.

Josh Norman has been selected to run for England at an International Cross Country fixture in Belgium on the weekend of the 13/14th of February.

His selection comes after a strong run in the Midland XC Champs last weekend where he claimed 3rd individually.