The challenging and extremely muddy course weaved around Hampstead Heath with all four coming away with a prestigious top 100 place.
Continuing her terrific winter season Under 15 girl Charley Whysall had a phenomenal run as she placed 12th in her race out of over 300 finishers. Charley started strongly placing around 30th after the initial charge up the hill and ground it out in the mud as she weaved through the field throughout the race. The club had two athletes compete in the Under 17 boys race with the highly talented Jacob Nugent and Jude Ryan placing 33rd and 53rd respectively. Katie Leese ran strongly in the Under 17 girls race and after a difficult start worked her way through the field to place 95th.
In the final cross country league fixture of the winter Mansfield took a strong team to the Derby Runner BDL fixture. Under the guidance of inspirational team manager Andy Walker, the club went into the race leading all three competitions and Andy rallied his troops for one last effort in the relentless mud of Holmebrook Valley Country Park.
Mike Blair has been prominent throughout the series and he knew one last big run would earn him both the Master 45 and overall league title. A superb race saw Mike come away as clear winner by over 30 seconds, with great team backing from Dan Nugent 3rd, Simon Fisher 4th, Matt Bottomore 5th, Reece Carver 14th, George Holden 17th, Richard Holden 33rd, Phil Shaw 37th, Tom Newbould 83rd, Mark Burr 94th and Shaun Arrowsmith 100. The team won both on the day and overall.
For the ladies the season went down to the wire with junior athlete Emily Pares and senior Hannah Wragg in contention for the overall title. Alice Mortiboy had a career best race to place 2nd, closely followed by Emily in 3rd, Katie Leese 4th, Hannah 7th, Helen Jones 16th, Amy Newbould 19th and Natasha Carver 22nd. Another great team performance saw the ladies comfortably take the female title and joint team winners with the men.
Individually Emily won the series overall, also taking first junior with Hannah winning the Senior age group and Amy taking 3rd in the Junior age group. With Mike taking the overall and Masters 45 titles in the men, further podium placings were earned by Matt 1st M40, Reece 1st Junior, Phil 3rd M55 and Geoff Bottomore 2nd M60.
National glory was earned at the British Masters Indoor Track and Field Championship at Lee Valley Stadium in London. Stef Wilcockson has had a phenomenal winter and the Masters 35 athlete recorded his third fastest time ever over the 60 metre Hurdles 8.87 to take a national gold and followed this with an impressive 200 in 24.59 where he placed 4th. Coming out of his comfort zone Kristian Watson competed in the M40 1500 metres where after a pedestrian first lap he front run to try and make it a test of strength. In a fantastic finish Kris came away with a silver medal as he recorded 4.16.57.
Racing at the Leicester Half Marathon the club had impressive wins in the M35 and W50 age groups with both Liam Watson and Carolyn Hay placing 6th overall in 75.00 and 87.49 respectively. Nic Hubbard recorded 1.53.40, Andy Longmead 1.58.21 and Karen Kowalski 2.10.15. Competing at the Carsington Water Half Marathon the fast improving Sam McCracken took his first win with a new personal best time of 1.22.36.