English return to the Elgoibar Cross Country, Spain
The English cross country contingent kickstarted the new year in Spain over the weekend for the Cross Internacional Juan Muguerza (Elgoibar Cross Country). Taking place in the Basque Country, the race is into it's 77th rendition, remembering a local runner, Juan Muguerza, a multiple-time national champion who was killed in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War.
There were four England teams representing across the junior and senior age groups. The multi-lap course offered a range of challenges from running on a track, to tight turns around a field of relatively long grass and two challenging hills.
Junior Women
There were fine and dominant performances by the under-20 women’s quartet of Eleanor Strevens, (Eastbourne, Christopher Voice), Zoe Gilbody (Telford AC, Sarah Benson), Isabel Holt (Blackburn, Edmund Finucane) and Isla McGowan (Banbury, Ros Kelling).
As the race entered the first of the two large laps, Zoe pushed on to take the lead with Eleanor and Isabel sitting in behind, Isla ten metres back. As the athletes approached the first significant climb on the course Eleanor hit the front and as the lap progressed began to pull away from Zoe, who was opening a gap on Isabel. The positions remained unchanged for the final large lap with Eleanor surging ahead to claim victory, ten seconds clear of Zoe in second place. Isabel too produced an impressive performance in her debut for England cross country, taking the third podium position.
Meanwhile, on the final lap Isla was caught by Spain’s Nadia Perez and then by the Spanish compatriot Claudi Guierrez. Isla continued to hold her form to cross the line in a credible 6th place in what was first outing for England Cross Country.
- 1st Eleanor Strevens – 19:46
- 2nd Zoe Gilbody – 19:56
- 3rd Isabel Holt – 20:16
- 6th Isla McGowan – 20:54
Junior Men
The junior men’s team was a mixture of youth and experience and with two athletes from the recent GB European team taking part. The gun fired and with the smoke still hanging in the air the charge to get to the head of the pack was on. The early pace was aggressive which even caught out the speedy Will Rabjohns (Poole AC, Mark Pauley) (3:41.79 – 1500m). The leading French athlete, Antoine Puydebois lead the procession with the eventual winner, Sem Serrano tucked in the pack.
As the athletes completed the medium lap and prepared to tackle the hill section, Will Rabjohns, and Brandon Pye (Houghton Harriers AC, Rob Bridges) had settled into 4th and 7th place respectively with Miles Waterworth (Brighton Phoenix, Bruce Warren) and Jack Marwood (Salford Harriers & AC, Ian Grime), down in the high teens. After two laps, Rabjohns seemed to be handling the hills well and had moved into a podium position.
The race for first was over with the Belgium, Sem Serrano running clear of the fading Frenchman, Puydebois. Further back Rafael Besnas Greco finally got the better of Will Rabjohns to secure the 3rd place on the podium with the fast-finishing Englishman taking 4th. Next to finish for England was Brandon Pye in 7th. Jack Marwood finished strongly in 16th place, lead home by Miles Waterworth in 15th place.
- 4th Will Rabjohns - 17:41
- 7th Brandon Pye - 17:56
- 15th Miles Waterworth - 18:24
- 16th Jack Marwood - 18:26
Senior Men
The England men’s team was headed by Tomer Tarragano (Brighton & Hove/Birmingham Uni, Dean Miller), winner of the Liverpool trial with Alfie Manthorpe (Sheffield & Dearne), Jacob Cann (Newham & Essex Beagles) and late replacement for David Stone, Richard Slade (Chiltern, Matthew Seddon) making up the starting four.
A sedate start around the two laps of the track followed by a lap of the adjacent field showed the England runners to the fore despite the presence of Berihu Aregawi of Ethiopia in the line-up. Alfie Manthorpe showed his hand first going to the front but was quickly followed by Tomer Tarragano with Cann and Slade also hovering in a top ten position. This was the early flat part of the race before venturing out onto a fairly gruelling four lap course up and around the stadium with significant climbs and drops.
At the first hill, the pace picked up. Tomer was now in 5th on the back of the lead group with Manthorpe in 6th, Cann in 8th and Slade locked 9th. This is how it panned out for a lap and a half until Manthorpe took the mantle ahead of Tarragano. A lap later another twist came as we approached the bell with 2km to go, Manthorpe, Slade and Tarragano were locked together in 7th, 8th and 9th positions with Cann 40 metres back in 10th. A fantastic last lap from Slade saw him get ahead and just beat Manthorpe and Tarragano for a fabulous 7th place on his England cross country debut. Closely followed by Manthorpe, with Tarragano a further 13 seconds behind and Cann coming in 10th.
- 7th Richard Slade - 30:55
- 8th Alfie Manthorpe - 30:56
- 9th Tomer Tarragano - 31:08
- 10th Jacob Cann - 31:16
Senior Women
Unfortunately due to withdrawals of Sophie Tarver (Wirral, Bill Foster) and Kate Willis (City of Norwich/Birmingham Uni, Dean Miller) due to illness, it was just Holly Dixon (Cambridge Harriers)Â and Megan Gadsby (City of Norwich/St Mary's, Mick Woods) flying the English flag for the senior women. They stayed focused on the task ahead and were excited to race against Beatrice Chebet of Kenya and Melknat Wudu of Ethiopia.
The race started at a comfortable pace and the field stayed together on the first lap of the track but by the time they came through the tunnel after the first small lap, Beatrice had already gained a considerable lead.
The French and Spanish athletes chased the leaders and after a little gap Holly and Megan followed in the next group of 6 athletes in 9th and 11th place. During the second of the three large laps, Holly caught the two women and led the group with Megan just sitting off the back of the group.
On the final lap Holly pulled away, now sitting in 5th place, pushing on up the last hill where unfortunately the Spanish athlete Carla Arce caught her coming into the finish. Holly was delighted with her 6th place with Megan also running a positive race finishing in 11th place.
- 6th Holly Dixon: 27:27
- 11th Megan Gadsby 28:09