Newbury's Sam Hart wins senior title at Berkshire Cross Country Championship in Cookham

Newbury Athletic Club had a superbly successful day on Sunday at the 2021 Berkshire Cross Country Championship, held at Copas Farm in Cookham, coming away with five golds, three silvers and a bronze.

Sam Hart kicked off the day in tremendous fashion with an incredibly impressive display to take victory in the Men’s championship race.

Hart led from start to finish and took the Senior County Champion title, which is the first time a Newbury AC athlete has achieved this feat, winning by over a minute ahead of Reading AC’s Dan Thorne.

Hart was backed up superbly by his Newbury AC teammates Cameron Craik, Callum O’Neill, Dan Tuttle, Matt Green, Peter Crisp and Dan Taylor to secure the team gold medal.

Hart and Craik were invited to represent Berkshire in next year’s Inter-Counties championship.

And it was a clean sweep of team golds for Newbury AC in the Men’s race as Steve Barnes, Bernie Gerrard, Jeff Bird and Mike Sheridan secured the Masters crown.

In the ladies race Newbury AC’s Laura Nurse and Rachel Allen took an impressive 1-2 to claim the individual Masters gold and silver, and along with teammate Jenny O’Connor won the team title.

Nurse and Allen were also invited to be part of the Berkshire team at the Inter-Counties Championship.

There was some great performances from Newbury Athletic Club’s younger athletes.

U13 boy Josh Norton finished 2nd with a fantastic second half of the race to win an individual silver medal; the U15 boys of Charlie Adams, Aston Howse and Jacob Glendenning won the team silver and there was bronze for the U17 girls team of Josie Robertson, Miriam Cooper and Sophie Bhatt.

The U15 girls of Isabel Moore, Katya Burgess and Georgia Knight all ran well and just missed out on a medal finishing as 4th team.

And U20 Luci Robertson finished 4th, qualifying for a place in the Berkshire squad for Inter-Counties Championship, along with sister Josie, Josh Norton and Charlie Adams.