| English National Cross Country Championships, Bristol 2002 |
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| Ashton Court Estate, Bristol the venue for the View From English National Cross Country Championships 2002. |
| The Championships were held on Saturday 23rd February 2002 with almost 3000 of the countries top athletes of all age groups taking part. The Girls U13 race comprised 28 clubs who had qualified through regional races, with over 250 elite girls taking part. Although only one age group the U13 race has both Year 7 and Year 8 athletes competing, Helen is in the younger group. |
| The start of the U13 race. Each club started from a seperate pen with up to 8 girls allowed from each club, the first 4 from each club scoring towards the Team Championships, Liverpool Harriers were one of the favourites for a lesser medal behind Aldershot and Farnham who have dominated this event for the last 3 years. The nature of the start means the girls must sprint from the line for the first few hundred metres to gain position, as passing later can be a problem. The race was 3K over a reasonably flat course with a few difficult hills towards the end. The main problem was a gale force wind and the fact the course was on the top of a 500 foot hill. |
| Helen around the 2.2K mark climbing one of the hills, as can be seen in the results Helen finished 32nd, but was in the top 20 in her age group. Liverpool Harriers finished 5th in the team event, unfortunately losing their top runner Melissa Ronan who collapsed during the race, happily recovering quite soon. The nature of cross country means that losing Melissa added approximately 80 points to our total, the difference between 5th and 2nd. |
| As can be seen from the various photos the weather conditions varied immensely during the racing, from sunny to sleet, the only constant being the gale force wind Most of the girls in the team are in the younger age group comprising the U13 race and should be back next year at Parliament Hill, Hampstead Heath, London, for the 2003 Nationals. |