On Saturday, Newport & District Running Club’s Alex Cochrane made his cross country debut at the Shropshire County Cross Country Championships. Held at Wrekin College this year, the relatively flat  course was just over 9.3km, and featured two separate laps linked by a contraflow section, both of which were completed three times to make up the distance. The weather was very cold, with snow in the air and on the ground, but luckily, conditions underfoot were good for running.

Entry requirements are quite strict for the race, with runners having to either have been born in Shropshire, resident in the county for 9 months or more, or serving with the armed forces within the county, as well as a member of a UK Athletics affiliated club. In a strong field of 101 runners who took on the senior men’s race, Alex worked incredibly hard to finish 35th overall with a very strong performance, and a time of 41 minutes, 5 seconds.