Taylor-Brown and Goodman win BUCS titles
Georgia Taylor-Brown took the notable scalp of Emelia Gorecka at the British Universities and Colleges Cross Country Championships at the University of Stirling on Saturday, as Tony Waterhouse reports.
Racing on a muddy Scottish course in blowy and damp conditions, the Leeds Met student edged the win by two seconds after the pair had led for much of the women’s race.
The prodigious Taylor-Brown, who was featured over two pages in Athletics Weekly a fortnight ago, only runs three or four times per week as part of her main sport – triathlon.
The 19-year-old, who is coached by Paul Roden, finished fourth in the junior women’s race at the European Cross Country Championships in Belgrade in December as Gorecka raced to gold on that occasion.
But Taylor-Brown had stopped briefly during that Euro Cross race to put her shoe back on after it was clipped off. And, improving all the time, she had enough strength and stamina in Stirling to inflict a rare defeat on Royal Holloway student Gorecka.
Rhona Auckland from Edinburgh University was third just over half a minute behind, with Jessica Andrews fourth, Chloe Richardson fifth and Gemma Kersey sixth.
The team competition was a close affair with St Mary’s and Birmingham tied on 35 points but Birmingham winning on countback courtesy of their last counter. Loughborough were third.
Richard Goodman took victory in the men’s race and led his St Mary’s team to a decisive team victory.
Goodman, who won the Southern cross country title the previous weekend at Parliament Hill, increased his lead over Jonny Hay over the second and third laps of the course.
His winning margin of 22 seconds was comfortable at the finish, while runner-up Hay finished nine seconds ahead of fellow Birmingham University student Jonathan Davies. Rowan Axe was fourth, Stephen Scullion fifth and local athlete Lachlan Oates sixth.
St Mary’s won the team race by a large margin over Birmingham, with Cardiff delighted with their bronze medals.
The men’s B race was dominated by St Mary’s, who had the first two teams as a result of 13 finishers in the top 20. Jack Partridge won from Michael Callegari with Alex Dunbar third.
» See the next issue of Athletics Weekly, out on February 6, for more photos and reports from Stirling
