Haughley Park, Stowmarket was the venue for the third fixture in the Suffolk Winter Cross Country League.
After their excellent start to the cross country season, Waveney Valley Athletic Club unfortunately were down on numbers for this fixture and for the previous race in December at Woodbridge, which resulted in the combined men’s and ladies A team moving down the league to eighth place overall. Despite the overall team slipping down the league, there were some very fine individual performances from the squad in both of the races, with several runners winning their age categories.
It was an extremely cold day at Haughley and the ground conditions proved to be awkward, with a mixture of hard frozen areas, but some muddy areas for runners to contend with over the 2-lap 8km course.
Carl Prewer was back to good form, finishing in fourth place overall, clocking 32:51 and in doing so, achieved his hat trick of victories in the V40 category.
Dominic Oliver who took first place overall at Woodbridge, and despite a below par performance at Stowmarket, still managed to clock a very creditable time of 33:38 to secure 7th place overall and 3rd in the U20 age group.
Bill Kingaby continues to dominate his age group V60; he recorded his third win, in clocking 42:16 in 94th position. Other notable performances, David Mower is obviously benefitting from his training for the London Marathon as he continues to improve in crossing the line in 137th place in a respectable time of 45:54. The men’s A team are now in 8th place overall.
In the ladies section, Catherine Rickett who was side lined with a foot injury at Woodbridge, put in a strong performance at Stowmarket in taking 48th place overall and 1st in her age group. Ann Millett and Tamsin Desborough put in much improved performances in finishing in 140th and 141st positions respectively. The ladies teams respectable placing’s, ensured they maintained their third place in the league.
Results from Stowmarket:
4th Carl Prewer 32:51
7th Dominic Oliver 33:38
48th Catherine Rickett 39:13
49th Chris Pimlott 39:19
94th Bill Kingaby 42:16
110th Alan Bradley 43:21
137th David Mower 45:54
140th Ann Millett 46:02
141st Tamsin Desborough 46:04
158th Sarah Bradley 47:15
161st Tony Millett 47:26
215th Stuart Smith 55:19
233rd Angela Mower 62:15