Winchester and District A.C. came away with a good haul of medals in the Hampshire Championships, held in the New Forest last weekend.

Their haul included two team wins and an individual first place.

The Under 13 girls, who've had a good winter's training, had a great day with some excellent performances, and Nicola Ferris became county champion. Not far behind in bronze medal position was Hannah Vosser, with Emma Buckett 8th and Ollie Berry 10th. It was 13 years ago that the club last won the U13 team title (see picture on page 26).

Also riding high were the Senior Women, who retained their county title for a second year with five of their team in the first 15 places. Rachel Townend worked very hard to become champion but was just beaten by McGarry from Jersey and consigned to a silver medal. She was followed home by good performances from Natalie Coveney (6th), then vet 45 winner Jan Ross (9th), Faye Jenner (12th) and Katharine Jones (15th).

The Womens Vet team had honours too - a silver team prize - through Ross, Jones (also 2nd vet 40), Joy Radford (also 2nd vet 50) and Fran Gay.

In the Under 15 girls category, the sole runner for the club was Lorna Russell, who ran a superb race to finish second and earn a silver medal.

There were some good performances from the boys, too, with James Harding 8th, Olly Halford-Guerra 19th and Sam Bolton 27th in the Under 13 category. In the Under 15 boys, Jack Bolton was 27th and Dan Hunt 32nd.

There was disappointment in the Men's race. Struck down with illnesses, Winchester failed to raise a team. Jeremy Braines was first runner home in 35th place, with Ken Hardcastle 128th and Ian Leedham 129th.

However the Under 20 Men had two good performances with Alex Pritchard 7th and Daniel Leedham 11th.

Road runners go well

Winchester AC teams competed in the Stubbington 10K Road Race last weekend, the latest round of the Hampshire League season.

Both teams were slightly weakened by the county cross country championships the previous day, but the Women's team excelled themselves by achieving a good second place.

Karen Hallitt led them home in 6th place in an excellent new personal best of 38mins 34 secs. Harriet Bush was 9th in a pb of 40.39 and third home was Joy Radford in 24th place after her exertions the previous day.

The B team scored well with Carol Francis 30th. in 44.20, Fran Gay 45th in 46.15 and Esme Ireland 47th in 46.50.

In the Men's event, Julian Mann led the team home in 18th place in 35.15 and was followed by Jeremy Braines (39th in 36.53), Mike Davies (46th) and Peter Spellman (61st) to give the team sixth place.

The B and C teams races were closely contested by club members Steve Goodwin (38.27), Andy Smart (39.27), Tony Britten (39.42), Gareth Hardman (40.12), Andy Carton (40.18), Malcolm Green (40.25), Mike Newton (42.27), and Bill Reid (42.46).

Under-16 Jack Bolton received a special second place junior award, finishing in 43.24, and Bernard Bennett was first vet 65 in 45.44.