- Posted November 28, 2021
A win for Ben West at Liverpool - and a place in the GB team!
Congratulations to Ben West on winning the short-course men’s relay trial (1.5km) in Sefton Park, Liverpool, yesterday. Ben won in a time of 4:28, three seconds clear of good friend and flatmate Luke Duffy, who came in second. This means that Ben is automatically selected for the GB team to compete in Dublin on 12 December in the 2021 European XC Championships!
Sophie Jacobs was 6th in the U15 girls’ race, in a time of 10:48. An amazing achievement - well done!
There was disappointment for our other runners. Kitty Shepherd-Cross didn’t make it to Liverpool, thanks to her train to Liverpool terminating at Leeds due to snow on the tracks. How frustrating! And Alex Shipley was unable to finish her short-course race due to a sore knee. We hope you recover quickly, Alex.
Well done to Ben and Sophie!
Ben decided to do the relay very early on when the selection policy came out as he prefers middle-distance running to long-distance running. In the short-course XC relay, two male and two female runners each run 1500 metres. Sarah McDonald, James McMurray, Alex Bell and Jonny Davies won the European Athletics Cross Country Championship title in Lisbon in December 2019. The team this time will be Ben West, Luke Duffy, Alex Bell and Hannah Nuttall. All eyes will be on their race in Dublin on 12 December - we wish Ben and the rest of the team the very best of luck.
All results are at https://results.sporthive.com/events/6870310191559753728, and an article with a full round-up of the day's winners can be found at https://www.britishathletics.org.uk/news-and-features/judd-and-rowe-seal-senior-titles-at-the-euro-cross-trials-in-liverpool/.
Thank you to Paul Bannister for allowing us to use his fabulous photo. Copyright Paul Bannister. Instagram @bannersrunningsnaps, facebook.com/bannersrunningsnaps.
