Surrey Silver

In bright sunshine at Denbies Vineyard in Dorking, on 9 January, Men's team captain Fred Slemeck and U20 Ellen Weir (above) won individual silver medals at the Surrey County Cross Country Championships while leading their teams to bronze, in the case of the Senior Men (who were winners at the same venue the last time the Championships were held in 2020), and silver for the combined U17 and U20 Women’s team, which included U17s Lulu Weisz and Millie Thorpe.

There were silver medals, too for the U13 Boys team of Harry Allen, Sam Dyson, Thomas Whorton and Zach Elliott – an achievement which particularly delighted the youngster's coach Andrew Davies. 'It is a just reward for a great group of boys who work hard and run as a team', says Andrew. 'Three out of the four medal winners are first year U13s, too, which is promising going forward.'

Below: Silver medals for the U13 Boys and U20/U17 Women

Clinching his silver medal Fred Slemeck clocked 42:46 over the 12.2km course. Second home for HW was Andrew Penney who finished 14th in 45:15. George Mallett, 17th in 45:43; Jackson Creegan, 21st in 46:04; Finn Johnson, 42nd in 49:13; and Joe Clark, 58th in 50:35, completed the six-to score team (below).

'I was buzzing. It was completely unexpected,' said Fred Slemeck after receiving his individual medal – 'just one of those days that everything goes to plan. I almost found myself in the lead pack by accident having moved up to get a good position on the main path across the vineyard. Over the three laps I managed to slowly move up from 4th to 2nd, holding off a rallying Joe Morwood (the early leader) over the last lap.

It was a hugely popular performance, as underlined by Andrew Penney, who says, ' I could see Freddie running off into the distance, so mid-way through the race I was shouting "how's he doing?" to Suzie (Fred's wife) and she called back that he'd moved up into second – she couldn't believe I was more interested in where he was, than in my own race!'

Below: Andrew Penney on the left, and Fred Slemeck on the right, in the thick of the race between the vines. Photograph by Nigel Bramley

Traditionally the Senior Men's squad is splintered for this event as under the UKA qualification rules some athletes race in different counties. This year Oliver Carrington was fourth in the Nottinghamshire Championships, covering the 9900m (approx) course in 32:52. Rhys Boorman was 12th in 37:18 over 10K in the Sussex Championships at Bexhill, with Richard Jones 26th in 39:32. Jonny Cornish⁩ was due to compete in Oxford, however the event was cancelled. Sam Todd (2nd Claim) was 8th in Norfolk in 34:00.9 (over 10K) and another second claim athlete, James Stockings, was 5th in Essex in 33:14, again over 10K.

Full Surrey Results