This weekend Llanberis, North Wales hosted the British Athletics Mountain Running Championships incorporating the Senior and Junior Home Countries International & trial for the World Mountain Running Championships, in Argentina.
The England Teams put in outstanding performances with both the boys U17 and U20 A teams gaining Gold medals and both girls U17 and U20 A teams earning Silver!
An outstanding 5 Buxton youngsters were selected to represent England in the Junior Home International Mountain race, which is hosted in turn by each of the participating countries and this year’s event in Llanberis follows on from a successful event in Glendalough in 2018. Team manager Duncan Richards commented, “This event brings the mountain running season to a close and provides an important development opportunity. England have a good record and this year we have a particularly strong team.”
The course was a gruelling 7km ascent and descent of the 726m high Moel Eilios, the final summit on the very long northwest ridge of Snowdon. It was a glorious clear sunny day with spectacular views of the Snowden Mountain range, however, the heat proved an extra challenge for the runners, resulting in heat exhaustion and some very nasty blisters! Selection for this race was predominantly made from the Trial race earlier in the year held at Pendleton, Yorkshire and also from performances throughout the fell season in series such as the English Junior Fell Championships. Buxton AC’s Lucy Bednall has focussed on the fell and mountains this year which reflected in her gaining her first England vest with a fine 2nd place in the trial race and also finishing 2nd in the English Junior Fell Championships. Lucy gained a place in the Under 17 girls A team – one of the team of 4 selected as counters for England. Lucy finished 10th overall and was the 3rd England counter earning a team Silver medal!
The race also offered opportunities for athletes to gain experience representing their country at this level with a selection to the England B teams who raced but did not count for team points. Selected for the England U20 B team were William Tighe, Lucas Parker and Sam Soles. Will gained this, his 2nd England vest for Mountain Running, he finished 8th in the 2017 Junior Home Internationals in the U17 Race. Will finished in an impressive 10th place overall. Making his mountain running debut for England, Lucas finished a creditable 5th at the trial race. In this race Lucas came a creditable 11th overall. This was Sam Soles’ 2nd England mountain running vest after competing in this year’s International U18 Mountain Running Cup in Italy. Sam also finished 2nd in the 2019 English Junior Fell U19 Championship. Sam ran a solid race to come in 14th place.
Representing England in the under 17 boys team William Longden made his international mountain running debut following his 2nd place finish in the English Junior Fell Championships this year. Will had a great England debut finishing 12th U17 boy.
A spokesperson for Buxton AC said, “This was an amazing experience for our young athletes – they wore those vests with pride and put everything into their performances on what was a very taxing route against a really quality field. For Buxton to produce 5 out of 30 youngsters selected to represent England is truly outstanding – they have done themselves, their Club and their country proud”