After heavy overnight rain, over 2000 competitors descended on Knowsley Safari Park for the Northern Cross Country Championships which was animal-free but not mud-free!
Trafford AC had several boys taking part but, unfortunately, no girls.
The Under 20 team finished just outside the medals in 5th place. Led home by an inspired performance from Mac O'Malley in 17th , they also had Nathan Townsend 38th, Seamus Bradbury 46th, and an injured Matt Sutton 60th.
Our Under 17s also ran well to finish 7th team in very difficult conditions. As usual, Xav O'Hare was first Trafford athlete home in 17th place, followed by a good run from Connor Fazakerley (52nd) then Jack Wilkinson (57th) and Mikey Kingston (62nd).
Nearly 200 athletes started in the Under 15 race in which we finished 11th team. Led by the consistent Joe Bentall in 36th, the rest of the team consisted of a return to fitness of Seb Patrick (58th), Cynog Williams (running on his birthday) in 70th, Theo Symons Treacher 102nd and Alex Bailey 130th.
Even though we failed to finish a team in the Under 13 race, it produced our best performance of the day, when Louie McCormack charged through the field of 213 to finish in an excellent 13th place. Louie still has another year in this age group. Tom Bentall ran well to finish 41st and Joe Read, in his first high level race, managed a good 169th place.
Most of the athletes will now move on to the Greater Manchester Schools Cross Country Championships at Heaton Park on Saturday when many will be hoping to gain County selection for the English Schools Championships.

​Hard work pays rewards!
That was proved to be true when the Trafford Young Athletes teams took part in the Greater Manchester Cross Country Championships at a hilly & muddy Woodbank Park in Stockport last Saturday.
Some of our athletes had trained over 100 miles over the Christmas school holidays, including training sessions on Christmas Day and New Years Day!
The rewards came in individual medals, team medals and County selection for many of them.
The U20 Men won their age group with 4 athletes in the top 7 finishers. Matt Sutton in an excellent 2nd place, was followed home by Mac O'Malley (4th), Seamus Bradbury (5th) and Danny Shaw (7th). All 4 should have done enough to ensure places on the County team for the Inter Counties Championships  at Loughborough in March.
Trafford's U17 Men's team followed suit by winning their event. The 3 team scorers of Xav O'Hare (2nd), Jack Wilkinson (7th) and Connor Fazakerley (9th) were closely followed by Mikey Kingston (11th) and James Norton (12th). All 3 scorers are eligible for this age group again next year.
The surprise of the day was the team victory of our U15 Boys team, giving Trafford a unique treble by winning 3 consecutive age groups in these championships. The outstanding performance of the day was Joe Bentall's individual win in this race. This was Joe's first major victory and he inspired the rest of the team to some excellent runs. Cynog Williams (6th) should have secured his 1st county vest, and the packing of Alex Bailey (12th), Seb Patrick (18th), Joe Mangan (19th) and Theo Symons Treacher (20th) bodes well for next year when they will all be in the same age group.
Our U13 Boys team were unlucky to just miss out on medals in a very strong age group. However, this was compensated by inspired runs from Tom Bentall (3rd) and Louie McCormack (5th) who will be awarded hard-earned Greater Manchester vests. Further down the field there were some solid performances by Oliver Choi (23rd), Joe Read (25th), Max Rarity (29th), Max Clay (30th) and Luca Costello (38th).
Unfortunately, Trafford only had 2 girls completing the course. Anna Baker delivered  her usual consistent run by finishing 12th in the U17 race and Lauren Howley was 46th in the U13 event.