WILTSHIRE sent a squad of 50 athletes to the National Inter-Counties cross country championships at Cofton Park in Birmingham, the senior men finishing 16th, the highest position achieved by the county in the competition.

Nyle Clinton (Swindon Harriers) finished 40th with 58th-placed Ben Brewster (Southampton AC), 118th-placed Simon Nott (Calne Running Club) and Heath Bampton (Oxford AC) in 157th. Damian Hall (Corsham Running Club) was 169th and Thomas Hemming (Swindon Harriers) 195th.

In the U13 girls race over 3,000m, India Ibbotson, of Team Bath, led home the Wiltshire team with a 78th-placed finish and along with 206th Imogen Tanner of IIF, 217th Olivia Roderick (IIF) and Rachel Oram, of Swindon Harriers, saw Wiltshire finish in 39th position out of the 41 counties represented.

The U13 boys race saw William Morris, of Lavington Athletics, lead home Wiltshire in 62nd, supported by Nile Batey, in 162nd (City of Salisbury AR&C), James Gordon, in 179th (Team Bath) and Oliver Phillips, (City of Salisbury) in 228th, to take 33rd in the team event.

Jade Littlechild, of Team Bath, led home the U15 girls county team, supported by Sarah Brett of Andover AC in 204th, Swindon Harriers’ Chloe Hayward, in 243rd and Louise Webb (City of Salisbury A&RC), in 266th, as Wiltshire finished 40th.

Otto Copping (Team Bath), in 160th, headed Wiltshire U15 boys with Niall Thorne (Avon Valley Runners), in 234th, Ethan Pierce (Swindon Harriers), in 245th, and Robert Croager (IIF), in 264th, as Wiltshire finished 38th.

Despite the efforts of 107th-placed Jaymee Domoney (City of Salisbury), 230th Fabrice Webb (City of Salisbury) and 248th-placed Jack Warren (Marlborough & District Juniors) Wiltshire’s U17 men finished with an incomplete team and did not score.

A similar fate befell the senior ladies, who suffered a number of last-gasp withdrawals, leaving it to 182nd-placed Denise Grech (Calne Running Club) and Sarah Warren (City of Salisbury), in 240th, to fly the county colours whilst Gemma Sheppard was the lone Wiltshire athlete in the U20 ladies but achieved an excellent 20th place.