UK Inter-Counties

Leighton Buzzard had four representatives at the Inter County championships in at Cofton park in Birmingham at the weekend. For those who are unfamiliar, the event is a selection event where the best runners from each county are picked to represent the county as a team with a certain number making up the scorers, but this varies for each race. In short, you have to be a pretty good runner just to get selected.

In the incredible U13 boys race Jordan Clay and Joe McGarry were both making their debuts at the event. The first person home for Bedfordshire ran 11.06 and came 44th. Jordan and Joe were both within 45 seconds of him, yet finished 173rd and 175th respectively and were 4th and 5th out of eight for the county, such was the mass of quality runners crossing the line. The boys helped the team come 22nd out of the 39 counties, which is pretty good for the smallest one in the country. This was a great finish to what has been an excellent season for both lads and long may it continue.

Our third representative was Billy Mead who was the 5thscorer in the U15 boys and finished 223rd. As a result, the boys took 12th place in the team event and Billy's own run shows that he can really compete with some of the top runners in the country and enables him to set himself some great targets for next season. The final runner was Simon Coombes who was the sixth scorer in the team that just managed to pip arch rivals Buckinghamshire by one place as he earned a very creditable 217th.