Four teams from the Rotherham Harriers braved the very wet conditions on Saturday at the British Masters National cross country relay championships at Long Eaton.

This is normally a flat and dry 3km route but with the deluge of rain on Saturday it was touch and go if the event would be cancelled due to the shear amount of flooding on the course, this would have been pretty much unprecedented for Cross country “…you don’t cancel cross country due to poor weather ! “. But there was a 50-60m section of the course completely flooded, knee high and deeper in some areas. More akin to a bog snorkelling championships and where flippers, arm bands and goggles would have more apt than the usual running attire.

But thankfully the race still went ahead. First up were the ladies and the Harriers had 2 strong teams braving the weather. The Harriers W35 team of Sarah Lowery (12:02mins), Natalie Harris (12:48mins) and Diane Elliot (13:45mins) put in a great team effort and came home with a great British Masters Bronze medal. The W45 Harriers ladies of Fiona Davies (12:47), Gillian Neal (16:42) and debutant Fiona Topliss (14:53) all had a great run in the conditions to finish in 7th place.

Next up were the mens races in non-relenting wet conditions. The M35 team finished a strong 5th place overall, Aidan Johnson (10:41), Gareth Sampson (10:55) who took a dip in the water to test out his front crawl for a few meters, great run from 800m track specialist Simon Oak (12:17), Philip Hoole (11:47). The Harriers M35 B team finished a credible 20th spot with a team of mixed ages. John Comrie (14:19), Martyn Whyman (13:24), Dean Furniss (12:23), Ian Whyman (13:39), Peter Neal (14:48).

Well done all the Harriers !