National Championships : Alton Towers - February 19th

On a day when the extremely muddy conditions caused concerns for the event officials which resulted in a pretty chaotic hour when start times were put back and courses changed at short notice our U13 Boys excelled themselves! They kept their focus throughout to give a superb demonstration of team running as they packed their 4 scoring runners between 13th and 22nd scoring 69 points to finish 33 clear of 2nd placed Tonbridge.

The time gap between 1st counter Ben Dijkstra in 13th and Alfie Thompson 22nd, the 4th scorer was a mere 7 seconds - quite stunning team packing!

Sam Elliott, 15th and George Bell, 19th completed the scoring 4 on an historic day for the club which promises much for the future. If these lads can stay together as they move through the age groups, combining with the existing U15s and U17s who are also making excellent progress, then the prospects for a Coritanian Senior Men's team to match the great squad of the 1980s could become a real possibility!!

In the U15 Boys race Xander Tansley produced a great individual run as he stormed home in 7th position and the team finished a very repectable 8th to underline their position as the top Midland Counties club following on from the win at Leamington on January 29th.

Our U15 Girls finished just outside the medals in 4th place. Mari Smith led the way with a terrific 11th place followed by Amy Griffiths who recovered from an early fall to finish 17th. Good support from Jemima Green (99th) and India Mitchell-Jarvis (128th) secured the 4th position ahead of some of the more fancied teams and they too were the top Midland Counties squad.

Lucy Crookes had a very solid run in the Junior Ladies race finishing 37th as she continues to make progress this winter. In the same race, Sarah Johnson, who has joined us second claim, produced a superb performance finishing 10th in a very high class race.

U13 Girl Caitlin Roper showed promise with a fine 45th in her first season with the club and Stefan Ashman led the U17 Boys home with a creditable 62nd placing.

Finally, it was good to have a presence in the Senior Ladies race where Jo Bradford and Chloe Morris acquitted themselves admirably finishing 100th and 222nd respectively

Midland Counties Championships : Leamington - January 29th

It was another great day for us in the Midland Championships at Newbold Comyn with team wins for the U13 and U15 Boys and Bronze medals for the U15 Girls and Junior Women. Once again we were the dominant club across the eight U13/U20 age groups

The U13 team win was stunning with Sam Elliott, Ben Dijkstra and Alfie Thompsom battling stride for stride over the last 200 metres with George Bell in close attendance a few metres behind. A scoring 4 of 2-3-4-5 has probably never been achieved before at this level!! Sam won the charge for the line followed by Ben and Alfie – all 3 of them finishing within 1 second of each other and George a mere 11 seconds back. Sam took the individual silver medal and Ben the bronze.

The U15 Boys also produced a great result with a narrow victory in the team event against possibly more fancied opposition – it was a superb effort with excellent runs from Connor Haywood in 25th, Will Rawlinson 27th and Phillip Maddocks 36th supporting Xander Tansey’s terrific run.

Congratulations to Xander Tansey for his silver individual medal which gave the U15 Boys a great start as did Amy Griffith's Bronze in the U15 Girls

Mari Smith in 7th, Jemima Green 25th and India Mitchell-Jarvis 47 provided the backup to Amy to secure the bronze team medals as once again we finished on the podium in the U15 Girls race

In the Junior Women’s race Lucy Crookes in 11th, Emma Brown 17th and Louisa Monk 21st secured the team bronze which underlined our strength throughout the young athlete’s events

It was almost a medal for the U17 Boys as well but despite a brave effort from Jake Kench who was clearly suffering from a cold the team missed the bronze by only 11 points to finish a close 5th

Commiserations must go to the U13 Boys B-Team who finished second but the rules do not allow clubs to take more than one team medal so the silvers went to Rugby and Northampton.