A TRIO of young girls from Swindon Harriers swept the board at the Wiltshire Cross Country Championships, writes Kevin Fahey.

Ella Spencer, Maisie McCalla and Freya Davidse secured gold, silver and bronze as they filled the first three places in the under 13 girls’ race.

Spencer is a natural on the country, and while she has only just moved up to U13s, she repeated the success she enjoyed twelve months ago in the under 11s race.

“The girls were delighted,” said Harriers’ coach John Dill.

“They train together every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday morning and are very dedicated bunch.

“Ella races on the track as well but she loves cross country,.

“It was also a good performance from Maisie as she has only just come back from injury and only been training for a month while Freya, who is a track specialist, has real potential.”

Another gold winner for the Harriers was Patrick Mochan. He finished seventh in a strong race that saw the under 17 and 20 men combined.

In the same race clubmate Jack Gunning just missed out on a county medal as he finished fourth.

Kelly-Marie Marsh is another member of Dill’s coaching group and she ran impressively to win the county silver medal in the under 15 girls’ race, chasing new champion Freya Buglass of Avon Valley Runners all the way to the line.

“Kelly-Marie’s main goal is the track so this is all good preparation for her next summer,” said Dill.

In the same race Katie New was sixth in the Wiltshire Championships.

John Burns dug deep to win a hard-earned bronze medal in the under 15 boys’ race and Samuel Rai placed fifth in the under 13s event.

In the under 11 girls’ age group Imogen Newby of Marlborough & District Juniors finished runner-up.

In the under 17 women’s race the Harriers trio of Lavinia Rai, Ayla Tonkin and Lucy Spencer finished fourth team with Rachel Oram also supporting.