Manawatu Wanganui athletes competed with distinction at the New Zealand Cross Country Champs held at Harcourt Park, Upper Hutt on 4th August.
Highlight was the gold medal in the Mens Under-18 6km race to Liam Back in 19 min 17 sec.
Liam 
sat in second spot most of the race on the shoulder of Will Anthony (Wellington), before unleashing a final sprint to take the title. Also 7th George Lambert, 20:05 (Wanganui Harriers) 22nd Andre Le Pine-Day 21:15 (Feilding Moa).
Kara Macdermid (PNAHC) won silver in the Senior womens 10km in 36:32. The Masters women saw two bronze medals earned by centre athletes with Dale Macmillan (PNAHC) in the W50-54 and Jo Speary (Feilding Moa) in the W60-64.
In the Senior mens 10km David Lovelock (PNAHC) was 29th in 36:52, closely followed by Josh Dunstan-Brown (Moa) 31st in 36:55 and Mark Searle (PNAHC) 39:09 in 34th place.
Sarah Lambert (Wanganui Harriers) added to the medal tally with a well earned bronze in the WU20 6km race (22:45). Under 18 womens 5km saw Stephanie Walker (Moa) 12th in 20:36, and Wanganui Harriers Sarah Matthews 22:21 and Marseille Bowie 22:51, 22nd and 23rd respectively.
Masters men 8km saw a close tussle between M50 runners Andrew Davenport (PNAHC) and Paul Wasley (Moa). Andrew getting the best of the sprint to take 7th in 31:55 and Paul 2 seconds away in 8th.
AJ Cornwall (Moa) ran 30:42 for 6th in the M45 and Rob Dabb was 11th in the M55.
Club runners were prominent in the age group races.
Under 12 2km: 12th Will Sablerolle-Stone (moa)7:57, 8th Tayla Trow (PNAHC) 8:16
Under 14 3km: 3rd Reuben Duker 10:52, 20th Charlie Hook 12:20, 3rd Hayley Cornwall 11:50, 4th Lucy McLean 11:51, 10th Poppy Rae 12:43 (all Feilding Moa)
Under 16’s 4km had Samuel Stichbury in the lead pack for the first half and he stayed strong to finish in 6th place (14:00), 7th Nelson Doolan 14:10, 21st Cameron Walker 14:49 (All Feilding Moa). The race was won by Joe Morgan of Hamilton Hawks in 13:09 with his twin, Adam, in 3rd. The same club that brought us the Robertson twins – watch this Morgan name in coming years, they look real classy.
