Whilst most of the Team Kennet juniors were racing in the Basingstoke XC League, a few opted to compete at the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire XC Championship instead. Held in glorious sunshine on the beautiful Englefield estate, the competitive racing across the age groups set the scene for some excellent Team Kennet performances, two individual silver medals and a team silver medal.
Matilda Saunders started the day for the juniors with a real battle in the U11 girls race. Despite a poor start, Matilda quickly took action to get herself into medal contention by the biggest of the hills and then move into 2nd place as they returned to flatter ground. Matilda used her strength well over the second half of the race to win an excellent silver medal with her and the race winner both stretching well clear of the rest of the field. In the U13 girls race Ella Larkin stayed right on the heels of the lead athlete for much of the race (showing some impressive downhill skills) however, having expended a lot of effort on the early hills, she was not quite able to maintain it through the final quarter. Nevertheless, 2nd place in Ella’s first year in the age group was a great performance. With Quinn Joyce and Ella McDonald also racing, Team Kennet was in the fortunate position of having enough athletes to complete a scoring team. Quinn continued her strong start to the XC season by settling into a good position from the start and delivered a well paced run to earn a very creditable 5th place. Ella M’s gutsy 15th place was enough to ensure an outstanding 2nd place in the team competition.
In the boys events, Josh Bailey was first to race in a closely contested U13 boys event. Fighting hard on deceptively steep hills, Josh came home in 21st place. Harry Smith was the final Team Kennet athlete in the U15 boys event. The race broke up into several tightly packed groups which ensured there was excellent racing throughout with Harry finding some good form to finish 16th in a very close finish (four athletes separated by two seconds).
Earlier in the day Richard Saunders had competed in the Senior race finishing 40th overall and 4th in the V45 category.
