RUNNERS representing Vale Royal Athletics Club have returned from the Northern Cross Country Championship with at least one medal at each annual edition since 2002.

Last year, at Pontefract Racecourse in west Yorkshire, they claimed a hat-trick of silver gongs: Tess McCormick was runner-up in the junior women’s race, a category in which the Knights Grange-based club also classified second as a team.

The under 17s boys matched that feat.

They will take on the best of the rest in the region at Witton Park, in Blackburn, this time around.

It’s a venue they remember fondly.

In 2006, Stevie Stockton made history as the first Vale Royal member to claim individual gold in the under 17s girls’ race there.

Clubmate Hannah Weedall was third overall in the same age class and, together with Lorna Timms and Laura Lambert, they were runners-up in the team standings.

Weedall crossed the line wearing no spikes or socks after throwing them aside part-way through.

Northwich Guardian:

Stevie Stockton, above left, with the gold medal she won in the under 17s girls' race in 2006. Right, with Laura Lambert and Hannah Weedall, centre, after finishing second as a team at the same event.

 

Vale Royal’s first gold medal at the Northern Cross Country Championships had arrived three years earlier, at Heaton Park, where an under 17s girls’ quartet of Becky Ellis, Beth Carter, Fiona Rudkin, Caroline Winder held off the challenge of Sale.

Northwich Guardian:

Vale Royal's under 17s girls' gold medal-winners in 2002. Not pictured: Caroline Winder. Becky Ellis, centre, won individual bronze too.

 

The previous year, in 2002, Ellis had won bronze in the under 15s girls’ race.

The boys had to wait until 2010 to bring back a gong, when Andrew Clews, Chris Perry, Zach Cross and Ed Crowther made up an under 20s men’s foursome that won silver – again at Witton Park – behind City of Leeds.

Matt Sheen (under 13s boys) won bronze.

Girls grabbed overall glory though, winning titles in the under 20s and under 17s categories.

In 2011, Megan Huxley followed in the footsteps of Stockton – who had won the under 20s title in 2007 too – when she was first in the under 17s girls’ race.

Northwich Guardian:

Megan Huxley on her way to first place in the under 17s girls' race at Herrington Country Park, in Sunderland, back in 2011

 

Vale Royal’s under 15s boys made history in 2012 when they become the first males from the club to win gold.

Elliot Bowker, Matt Sheen, Tim Morris and Daniel Morrison were well clear of Preston at Pontefract.

Northwich Guardian:

Vale Royal's under 15s boys' quartet show off the silverware they won at Pontefract in 2012

 

The under 17s and under 15s girls were category winners the same day.

The 2014 edition, at Knowsley Safari Park, was the best yet.

Bowker was victor in a thrilling under 17s boys’ race, in which Vale Royal’s Sam Whitehead was third, to enter the record books as the first male to win an individual title at the event.

Northwich Guardian:

Elliot Bowker, left, in a race to the line during the under 17s boys' race at Knowsley Safari Park in 2014. He got there first, winning gold.

 

It was of nine medals won overall on Merseyside, with three other golds arriving in team competition for the under 20s women, under 17s boys and under 17s girls.

Two athletes, McCormick and Amelia Pettit, have won a medal – whether as individuals or part of a team – for each of the past seven years.

Northwich Guardian:

Tess McCormick won a silver medal in the junior women's race at last year's Northern Cross Country Championships at Pontefract Racecourse. Vale Royal were second in the team standings for the same category