This weekend marked one of the biggest in terms of regional cross country championships, with scores of Team Blizard athletes tackling races in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and more, while equally hardy runners gritted their teeth as they pushed through a Blizard Saturday session!

Elite Team Blizard athlete Fiona Davies battled hard for her 20th place in the Yorkshire Cross Country Championships on Saturday to help her Rotherham team mates win gold medals.
Fiona covered the very challenging 7.8km course in a superb 36:24. She was up against one of the most competitive regional championship fields in the country, which included Olympian Susan Partridge, elite sprinter Claire Duck and top mountain runner, Katie Walshaw, to name but a few!



Sheffield’s Chris Ireland also fought hard to place in the top percent of the senior men’s field, clocking an admirable 45:44 over the 10.4km course, placing 112th out of 269 competitors. Even more impressively, he was second V55 at the mud-drenched event!



Rotherham’s Ian Whyman was just three places behind in a fine 46:12, with Doncaster’s Martin James battling away to cross the line in 131st position in 46:47, and Kimberworth’s Lee Weatherall never far behind in 51:18.

Meanwhile at the Derbyshire Cross Country Champs, Clowne’s elite lactate trained athlete, Gareth Lowe, excelled in finishing fifth overall and first V40, completing the 6 mile race in an incredible 37:48, while club mate and increasingly speedy marathon runner, Dan Page, also revelled in the mud to finish in 40:54.



There was a ‘proper’ cross country course at the Lincolnshire championships, with Team Blizard’s Georgina Weston of Notts AC qualifying for the illustrious Inter-Counties in March, despite having to wade through rivers to battle the 3.3m challenge in a strong 27:27.

Team Blizard’s hardy crew were also in action at our weekly Saturday morning training runs on the weekend, tackling a massive session of 5 x 8 minutes followed by a gruelling but stamina-building 1 x 20 minutes! These sessions are open to all, and this Saturday marks the latest in our hugely popular 5k On Running time trial, which allow you to try on any pair of our brilliant On Running shoes before you tackle the super speedy 3.1m measured course, followed by a slap up breakfast!

Team Blizard - training hard, training smart, racing to their full potential!