THE start of the cross-country season saw Halesowen athletes take on others from all over the region in the West Midlands Young Athletes League.

The youngest of the club’s athletes demonstrated fantastic form. Halesowen’s very own Sam Mannings took the win in the under 11 boys race in 6.38 with Max Price, also from Halesowen taking third in 6.44.

Another great performance came from Lewis Mallard who finished in 18th in 7.00.

Top performers for Halesowen in the under 17 boys race saw Niall Geraghty place fifth (17.22) with Joshua Timmins placing 12th (17.44) and Keiran Walker 35th (19.33).

It was Birchfield’s Remi Flavell who took the win in the under 17 race in a time of 15.05. First in for Halesowen was Chloe Fitzpatrick in 16.59 placing 16th closely followed by Isabel Hall in 18th in 17.11 with Lydia Wilkinson finishing in 28th in 18.08.

The under 15 girls race saw Coventry’s Bethan Hinett with a convincing win in 12.29 with Abigail Saker taking third for Halesowen in 12.50. Next in for Hales was Lily Higgins in ninth (13.05) then Katrina Simpson 10th (13.11).

This first event of the season placed Halesowen third overall behind Rugby and Northants and Wolverhampton and Bilston.

Meanwhile, a number of Halesowen Athletes took part in The Birmingham Half Marathon last Sunday.

In the Junior 2.5k race, Abigail Saker performed well to be the first Halesowen athlete to run back down Broad Street to place as second girl in 8.39 minutes with team mate Livvy Worth hot on her heals placing third girl home in 8.41.

Thomas Parker placed third boy in 8.46 with Megan Parker taking eighth, Tabitha McCartan 13th and Sonny Mcartan 32nd.

Following out the elite athletes were many of the Halesowen Senior Athletes who achieved some impressive performances, the best being Richard White who broke the top 50 placing 42nd.