The Southern Masters Cross Country Championships were held in Horspath, Oxford (Shotover) on Saturday December 10th, and The VoAAC was represented by four athletes – Tim Jones, Andy Byerley, Alan Roberts and Trevor Lynch.
In what was one of the coldest Decembers in recent years, the event took place in lovely winter sunshine, albeit at a temperature of 2c – even colder at the top of the hill! The route was 9.4k using a variation of the course we follow for the Chiltern League XC events at Shotover – including the obligatory “twice up the hill” for good measure.
Andy, Alan and Trevor competed as a team in the vets (50 – 59) category, while Tim competed in the 65-69 category.
Tim performed really well and took first place in his category in a time of 42:51 – almost a full two minutes ahead of the next placed athlete in the category.
The VoAAC Vets 50 team finished in 7th place (out of 9 teams) in the Vet 50 category, and 21st out of 27 overall.
Individually, the guys finished as follows (in their age group):-
- 1st Tim Jones – 42:51
- 17th Andy Byerley – 42:05
- 33rd Trevor Lynch – 48:08
- 12th Alan Roberts – 51:58