B&B runners show form in Edinburgh and Detling

2:00pm Monday 12th January 2009

MIKE Skinner figured prominently in the 4km short course race at the Great Edinburgh Cross Country meeting last Saturday.

The Blackheath and Bromley athlete was well placed in the pack for the opening two thirds of the race, which featured many of Britain's top middle distance runners.

From here he made a surge to try and break the field but while some fell off the pace fellow Internationals Andy Baddeley and Steve Vernon did not.

Baddeley, a training partner of Skinner, went on to win and Skinner was reeled back in the closing stages to finish in fifth place.

He now plans to travel to Australia to train for a month.

The race in Edinburgh meant that Skinner had to miss the Kent County Cross Championships at Detling Showground.

Freezing conditions on a location which is one of the highest points in the County made it a challenging day for the athletes but the club, nevertheless, had some good results.

Bryony Proctor won the senior women's race last year despite being an under-20, but this year had to settle for the runners-up spot.

This was a good run considering she has missed much of the winter through injury.

With the ever-improving Jane Bradshaw in 10th and Sarah Downing in 14th, the club won silver medals in the three to score contest.

This was achieved despite the absence of athletes such as Jennie Butler, Siobhan Budd and Shavaun Henry and they went one better in the six to score event where, with Julie Reynolds 16th, Rosie Ferguson 19th and Lisa Page 27th, they won gold medals.

Loughborough student James Poole had a fine run in the Senior Mens race to finish in fifth place and with Peter Tucker 10th and Alex Gibbins 11th team medals were a possibility.

Unfortunately the remaining three scorers were a lot further down the field and they finished fourth.

In the under-20 age group, new member Frank Kilama, who has joined the club from Bexley AC, finished in fourth place while Cambridge University student Alistair Cliff was 23rd.

Last year's champion Alex Bruce Littlewood was unable to defend his title because of injury.

Jen Hamer led the under 17 womens’ team to silver medals. She finished in eighth place with Chelsea Crouser 12th and Melody Kane 14th.

Hector Kurtyanek was first home for the men in ninth place but with Jonathan Halls the only other Club member in 27th they did not complete a team.

Best individual performance of the day came from Amber Reed in the under-15 girls race.

Amber has been improving almost by the week and she stepped up another gear to win the county title by nine seconds.

With Hannah Cook and Rachel Robinson both having good runs in 10th and 11th they took silver medals in the team race.

The boys finshed in fourth place, missing out on medals by the narrowest of margins.

They had the same points score as third-placed Medway & Maidstone but missed out as their fourth scorer finished one place behind M&M’s fourth man.

Oliver Taylor was first home in eighth with Sam Jackson 15th , Greg Proctor 19th and Robert Yates 23rd.

Janae Galley came a good seventh in the under-13 girls' race, and with Holly Fletcher 18th and Sonia Woolhouse 23rd, they were fifth in the team race.

Good back up came from Izzy Jackson in 25th.

The boys were fourth, led home by William Ruiz in 11th with Richard Webb 15th and Alex Punnett 16th.

There was good strength in depth here with Thomas Desborough 38th, Daniel Waller 42nd, Louis Parkinson 44th and Oliver Sims 48th.