For the second round of the Wessex Cyclocross League it was Sotonia’s very own home race at Southampton Sport Centre. This year saw a slightly different course due to terrain changes but it didn’t stop it from being one of our best courses to date. With corners, banks, berms and our lovely off-camber section, I must say we did pretty well this year. Not only was the course good but we had an amazing turn-out as well.
The first to take to the course were the U8s. Lucy Greenhalgh came second in the Girls. Max Adams took his second podium of the year, finishing in third with Eli Tang only five seconds behind him in fourth. In the U10 Girls, Flo Boustred came second and Olivia Davies came seventh. Leighton Riley finished fourth in the Open category, Wilf Barlow in seventh, Joshua Marsden in fourteenth, Sunni Muriithi in fifteenth, Harrison Hough in eighteenth and Jordan Riley in twentieth. Ella Greenhalgh came second in the U12 Girls and Jess Barry finished sixth. Theo Plumb came fourth in the Open category, Joseph Lovegrove in seventh, Archie Frogley in ninth, Alfie Hough in tenth and Rex Davies in fifteenth.
Then we were introduced to the adults course and the last of the youths took to the stage. In the U14 Girls, Emily Williams came fifth, Penny Campbell in fifteenth and Ruby Boustred in sixteenth. Freddie Trosh came ninth in the Open category, Billie Dyer in fourteenth, Leeyo Muriithi in sixteenth, Ruben Davies in seventeenth, James Sutton in nineteenth, James Martin in twentieth and Reuben Lewis twenty-fourth. In the U16 Girls category, Alexis Barry came sixth. In the Open category, our Sotonians followed each other over the line with Aneurin Gilbert, Sam Comben and Morgan Gilbert coming ninth, tenth and eleventh. What a great turn out for our Youth section!
In the Junior Open, George Boustred came thirteenth and Niclas Olley took his first Senior Open win of the season after an epic battle with Andi Gardiner who came second in the M40 Open race. Sam Ridgement came ninth in the Senior category, followed by Sam Marcade in tenth and Oliver Starkey in twenty-eighth. Pete Boustred brought home fourth in the M40 Open. Jon Hall came ninth in the M50 Open and Jon Dudley finished eighth in the M60s.
In the Junior Women’s, Marit Davidse fought well and finished fifth. Emma Harrison finished ninth in the Senior Women’s. Sotonia also saw some new faces in the women’s race this week, following the Women’s Taster Session the day before that encouraged some on-the-day race entries; Caroline Trosh came sixth in the M40 Women’s, Julie Williams in tenth and Nicole Barry in eleventh.