by Alex Hoad

Three Invicta East Kent AC girls have been selected to represent Great Britain at the World Cross Country Championships in Poland later this month after stunning performances at the UK Inter-Counties Championships in Birmingham.

Rebecca Weston, Alex Clay and Bobby Clay (pictured) competed in an event which not only formed the under-20 Inter-Counties Championships but was also the World Cross Country Championship trials and the final race of the McCain UK Cross Country Challenge.

For the Clay sisters, from Wingham, it was a step-up from their under-17 age-group, while 15-year-old Bobby was seeking more top-level experience and entered the race with nothing to lose.

The sisters and Weston, from Rough Common, joined the leading pack from the off and Bobby Clay eventually broke away with seven-time inter-counties champion Emilia Gorecka of Aldershot and Farnham.

Despite a huge age, size and experience gulf between the two, Clay matched the champion stride for stride before Gorecka’s class told and she broke clear in the closing stages.

Gorecka won the race in 19mins 41secs with Clay second in 20.07 and Weston fifth (20.32) with Alex Clay a further five seconds back in sixth place to help Kent claim team gold in the inter-counties championships.

The trio will form half of the GB team in the under-20 race at the World Cross Country Championships to be held in Bydgoszcz on March 24.

Invicta EK will have 13 representatives at the English Schools National Cross Country Championships at Catton Hall, Derbyshire, on Saturday.

Alex Clay along with Emily McKane will take on the senior girls while Bobby Clay, Amy Old, Lilly Coward, Abigail Fox and Anna Weston will contest the intermediate girls’ race.