Today was the start of the 2023 ESAA XC cup campaign at Brynaston, a competition we have had enormous success in over the past few year, so we had high hopes for some strong performances.. We entered teams in all three age group junior, inter and senior girls with a number of rookies in the competition for the first time, many also wearing the SG vest for the first time too.

The junior girls were up first, it's lovely to see Iris back on form and injury free, she led the team out looking confident and strong. with Annie, Georgie, Lottie, Makeda and Lana completing the six. The course was short and fast a little over 2km in distance but including the lovely path along the river before a tricky little up hill section to the finish. Iris had an outstanding race finishing a fabulous 3rd, Annie 30. Georgie 41, Makeda 42, Lottie 43, Lana 45 all finishing in the top 2/3 of the race.

The inter girls were next to race over a 3k course, 3 short laps of the course, challenging having to negotiate the tricky uphill section three times. Sadly due to illness and injury we only had a team of five, Rosie, Molly, Phoebe, and new runners Connie and Ploi. Rosie had an exceptional race taking a second 3rd place for SG on the day bearing a number of her nemesis on the way! Connie and Ploi showed some good promise in the SG colours for the first time.

The senior race was one long and one short lap some 3.3km, still a short one for this age group so a fast pace was needed. This was another team struck down by illness and injury, again with us only fielding five runners. Georgia, Flo, Lily, Hattie and Tilda made the start line.

All had good races with Hattie taking an impressive scalp finishing as first SG home. Followed closely by Georgia, Tilda, Flo and Lily. In this competition its difficult to judge your finishing position overall so we were delighted to hear we finished an impressive second behind Millfield, gaining qualification to the Regional round in November. Well done!!