9:30am Wednesday 25th November 2009
Five Andover athletes were on Hampshire athletics duty over the weekend, Chris Berntsen, Chris Adams and Luke Holman in France and Tom Bennett and Chris Neil in London.
Berntsen, Adams and Holman were all selected to represent Hampshire AA at the annual Foulees des Vignettes International cross-country meeting at Coutances in Normandy, France. They sailed from Portsmouth in very wet and windy conditions arriving at Caen in the early hours of Saturday. They were taken to the City of Coutances for a welcome reception and met their hosts for the weekend - local families who each year open up their homes. The races took place at Coutances Stadium on the Sunday.
Berntsen was in the longest race of the day, the Junior Men’s for those born in 1991 and 1992, which comprised three laps of the 1,800m course. He also raced alongside the senior men and performed extremely well to take the silver medal in a very quick 17:52, just behind the eventual winner from France.
Holman, who competed in the Minimes category for boys born in 1995 and 1996 and Adams, who competed in the Cadets category for boys born in 1993 and 1994 raced at the same time. Theirs involved two laps of 1,800m with Chris securing the bronze and Luke taking sixth place in his age group.
All three really enjoyed the experience and both Chris’s also had a bit of success prior to the main race, where they were in the Hampshire team for a 1,000m x three man relay and beat all other teams to take home the silverware.
l Bennett and Neil were selected for Hampshire to compete in the SEAA Inter Counties Championships, at Parliament Hill Fields, set in the beautiful surroundings of Hampstead Heath in London over the weekend.
This dramatic course provided runners and spectators wonderful views of Hampstead Heath and also of the City of London from the pinnacle of the hill. The Parliament Hill course is renowned for its strength sapping hills and is usually ankle deep in mud. This weekend was no exception, with rain pounding the course for many days running up to the event followed by more rain on the day.
Bennett and Neil were in the U17 men’s race which was run over 5km. The six man Hampshire team battled with the other runners and also themselves, with team members changing order throughout. Tom was first of the Andover contingent home in 32nd in 17.30. He was third placed Hampshire man to cross following an exciting sprint with the second Hampshire man who just pipped Tom by a second. Chris Neil was only 12 seconds behind in 38th place and was fifth in Hampshire over the line. It was enough for them to clinch team gold.
© Copyright 2001-2010 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.andoveradvertiser.co.uk