Cat takes the county cream for Nene Valley Harriers

They followed up their excellent showing in the Cambridgeshire County Championships by grabbing more gold at the Lincolnshire version in Biscathorpe.

A ‘true’ cross-country course that included three river crossings and muddy hills took its toll on many of the athletes, but Nene Valley’s Cat Foley used this to her benefit in the senior ladies race.

While those around her floundered, Foley flourished. She stormed up the hill and into the woods to take the lead and never looked back, crossing the line as a comfortable county champion.

Grace Mullins, in one of her first events following injury, also finished strongly for third place.

Niam Payne became Nene Valley’s second county champion when racing away with the Under 17 men’s spoils.

And with Austin Herbert taking the bronze medal and Bradley Allen supporting the leaders well they also came away with team gold.

The ‘B’ team didn’t hang around either with Nathaniel Taylor (7th), Nathan Davey (12th) and Will Baker (13th) taking a well deserved silver team medal.

The most dominant performance by a Nene Valley team came from the Under 20 men.

They had four runners in the race and they took the top four places with Jake Richardson skimming over the wet surface to win followed by James McRae (2nd), Alex Hampson (3rd) and Brad Spurdens (4th).

Under 15 girl Hana Ray won a bronze medal and with support from clubmates Paula Naylor (7th) and Ffion Lewis (13th) Harriers won the team silver.

There were also team silver medals for the Under 15 boys squad of Nandeli Pelembe (8th), Ethan Ellison (9th) and Codi Leigh Middleton (11th) and the Under 17 ladies team of Megan Ellison (6th), Alice Callcut (9th) and Hermoine Wright (10th).