by Steve Torrance

Winchester AC’s Under 17 Women team has won the Hampshire Cross Country League title.

In the final fixture of 2016/17, at Prospect Park, Reading, they finished second behind the hosts.

Grace Mann has been improving her position every race and left the best to last with an excellent run for third with Poppy Clements eighth, Isla Allan ninth and Natasha Miles 19th.

In the Individual overall aggregate, Clements was fourth, Mann fifth and Allen sixth to emphasise Winchester’s dominance.

Emily Coulson throughout the season made a great contribution to the Under 17 Women cause.

The Winchester under 13 Boys were bolstered by inclusion of some of the Under 11 Boys.

They finished second team on the day which helped them to a superb second team place overall.

James Medley (8th) had his best run of the season followed by Harry Harvey (10th) and Michael Shingleton-Smith (18th). Harvey was the best placed Winchester runner in the Individual aggregate in 12th.

Other Winchester runners were Thomas Briggs 33rd Charlie Cox 35th , Ben Schofield 47th, Arthur Chambers 48th and Sam Williams 55th.

The Senior/Vet women had less Winchester runners taking part than usual and this was demonstrated in their sixth team position of the day. They were second overall, though.

Melanie Wilkins was 5th on the day and 4th Individual aggregate overall.

Sue True was 34th, Alison Fenwick 49th and Madeline Vosser 75th.

True, Fenwick and Vosser made up the Vets women team which were 4th team on the day but had enough previous team victories to be first team overall.

Although not running on the day, India Lee was the League’s Women’s Individual aggregate winner.

In the Vets Individual section, Sue True was 9th overall .

Winchester had a good turnout in the Under 13 girls race with Hannah Foster 8th, Grace McKee 14th and Under 11 Jasmine Jones 22nd.

Other finishers were Lara Bassett 23rd, Lily Neate 25th Ellie McErlean 27th , Clemmie Rydon 31st Jemima Berry 32nd, Aisling Hitchman 41st, Grace Tugwell 43rd and Evie West 46th.

The Winchester team were 5th on the day.

There was again only two Winchester finishers in the Under 15 girls race - Tallulah Jeffes 16th and Isabella Beck 27th.

There were no Winchester Under 15 boys taking part and Kieran Payne (20th) was the club’s only runner in the Under 17 men’s race.

In the final race, the Senior/Vets Men’s, Franklyn Young was Winchester’s highest finisher in 80th. He was followed by Rob Carter 88th and Peat Allan 89th.

Winchester finished sixtth in the overall Senior team aggregate and were fifth overall in the Vets team section thanks to Young, Carter and Allan.