Northern Success for Birtley ladies - report by Tom Millmore

The forecast was rain, and during the drive to the event, it certainly looked like it would be, however the rain stopped, and the warm sunshine that followed was a bonus. And the sun certainly shone on the 6 Birtley AC athletes who travelled to Sheffield. Once again the U15 girls trio of Olivia Murphy, Kitty Graham and Nell Graham pulled on the blue and yellow vest to compete, and they were joined by a Senior Women’s team of Katie Francis, Amber Leigh and Lydia Turner.

First off were the U15s, and Olivia, on the first leg, came back in second place, with a time that was second fastest overall. She handed over to Kitty, who had a fantastic leg, working hard, especially up the long (very long) leg sapping hill, holding on for 4th place, when handing over to Nell, and what must be a big confidence boost for her. Nell completed the team with another strong race throughout, and brought the team in for 4th position, only 7 seconds off a podium place. These girls are all first year of their age group and were very near to a medal. Their next team event is the National XC Championships in a couple of weeks time and the comments were “we’re going to be after those teams that were ahead today”. Now that’s a positive attitude 👍.

The Senior Women’s team were off next. Katie coming in a strong 14th place to hand over to Amber, who came back in 6th to hand over to Lydia who ran the team through to a well deserved Silver medal. Katie was racing in what was her first Senior event in a Northern Championship and is still in the U20 age group, she put her toe on the line and came away with a medal (the smile was massive). Amber last raced this event in 2015 (still U20) and her primary sport is now boxing, although she’s raced 5 times during 2023/24 for the Club, each time in a relay, competing as a team, she put her toe on the line and came away with a medal. Lydia has had some good success throughout the years, and although only racing a handful of races since 2018 due travelling and living in Australia, she’s raced well this year locally, for your Club, and stepping up to a Regional Championship, she put her toe on the line and came away with a medal, and as a bonus the 3rd fastest leg of the day.

​Of course it’s not all about medals, there’s only 3 medal positions to race for. The sport is about “taking part” “racing against yourself” “competing” “supporting”. There were 29 teams in the U15 girls and 40 in the women’s, each one having their own race, and being supported by their Club members around the course. These Birtley AC girls deserve a massive big shout out, although the main reason they did race, and represented your Club, was that they really enjoy doing it. Keep smiling, keep positive girls!!