A golden weekend at County Championships for PANVAC stars, plus Phil wins in Oundle and then runs an extra 3 miles!

In addition they won enough silver and bronze to sink a small ship.

Louie Hemmings comfortably won the Lincolnshire under 13 boys title while Lewis Legge took a hard fought gold in the same age group in Cambridgeshire. Both youngsters established themselves as being amongst the best boys of their age in the country last year, and they have started 2023 where they left off.

The Lincolnshire course at Biscathorpe in the Lincolnshire Wolds, is a classic old fashioned cross country course of the type rarely seen nowadays.

The streams and cloying mud which the competitors had to wade through did not appear to put them off their stride, and in addition to Hemmings' win there were individual golds in both under 20's races with Harry Hewitt winning the mens by a margin of over theee minutes, and Hannah Knight taking the ladies title. PANVAC filled the top three spots in the ladies race with Ellie Rainbow 2nd and Lottie Hemmings 3rd. Needless to say the ladies won team gold.

Team gold medals went to the under 15 boys team of Rhys Buswell, Will Harris and Noah Fell with Buswell taking individual bronze.

The Priory Park course at St Neots was testing, without having the hazards found at Biscathorpe. One of the top performances of the day at St Neots came from Erin Walker who enjoyed a fine run when winning under 13's silver. Walker and the Cambridge & Coleridge AC race winner were well clear of the rest of the field.

In the Cambridgeshire men's race Dan Lewis took individual veterans silver, and Simon Fell did the same in the Lincolnshire Championship.

Fell's son Isaac won the mens under 17's silver with Hannah Taylor winning the ladies silver in the under 17 age group. Gemma Holloway was also amongst the medals at Biscathorpe finishing 2nd in the senior ladies race.

Luke Brown in 7th, and 9th placed Nathan Bunting led the PANVAC senior men to Cambridgeshire team bronze, with veteran Dan Lewis, Steve Wilkinson, Toby Hall and Alex Curtis also in the scoring team. The masters team of Dan Lewis, Steve Hall and Sean Beard also finished 3rd.

The 3rd member of the Hemmings clan Evie won under 15's bronze at Biscathorpe with the masters team of Simon Fell, Ben Hewitt and Paul Parkin taking team bronze.

At St Neots the girls under 13's won team silver thanks to good runs from Izzy Hurn, Sarah Clough and Avril Bloodsworth. The under 15 girls won bronze with 2nd placed Erin Walker joined by Charlotte Smith and Rebekah Clough. Clough's mum Elisabeth Sennit- Clough captured ladies over 45's silver.

Helpston, Eye and Yaxley also had members in the Cambridgeshire Championship, and Helpston's Isaac Ellard placed 4th in the senior men's race.

Tracy Barnes of Eye won gold in the ladies over 55's category with Yaxley's senior ladies led by Clare Piercy collecting team bronze.

ROUND-UP

PANVAC's Phil Martin has started his 2023 London Marathon preparations in good time.

Martin won the Oundle 10 km road race on Sunday with a time of 33.30 which put him nearly two minutes clear of the chasing field.

Combining the race with a training session Martin ran six miles before the race and and a further three miles afterwards.

Richard Arden of Bushfield Joggers placed 37th in 42.39, while Kelly Maddy of Thorney was the first local lady home, placing 8th with a time of 43.59.

Eye's Marc Joyce and Nick Wilkins finished 8th and 9th in the Oundle 5k in times of 20.54 and 22.09 respectively. Steve Alpress of Bushfield Joggers finished 10th in 21.42.

Yaxley's Ros Loutit ran a 10km road PB of 42:07 in London on Sunday.

Loutit finished 3rd in the over 55 category at the Regents Park race with a performance which is likely to have won her the opportunity to represent England in a masters international.