There was plenty of excitement as Australia hosted it’s first World Athletics Cross Country Championships. There was plenty of buzz in the lead up to the big event with Archie Noakes (U20) having secured a spot in the Australian side and Liam Adams (Open) aiming to secure a spot in the race Senior Men’s Race via a Golden Ticket.

As the athletics community converged on Bathurst it was evident that the hot conditions would make the already difficult course even more so.

Archie Noakes entered the World Cross Country Championships as the only junior with international experience, proceeding to flourish in the unforgiving conditions when finishing 17^th with a time of 26:06 in the Under 20 Men’s 8km – the second-best result by an Australian junior in the history of the event. Given the race was conducted in 35°C heat with a humidity level of 31% it as an extraordinary effort by Noakes to help the Australian side finish in 6^th place.

“I was not expecting that at all! My least favourite part was the hills and I didn’t really have a favourite spot, but I backed my fitness. For the last four or five weeks I have been cranking the hills and it really paid off,” Noakes said.

“It’s a team sport and the boys did really well.”

Having missed out on being selected for the Australian team, Liam Adams made the trek to Bathurst to compete in the Golden Ticket Race with the hope of snagging a spot in the main race. His excellent performance secured one of the seven golden tickets that were up for grabs. Whilst the Senior Men’s Race was conducted in 23°C heat, a humidity of 56% provided its own challenges. Having run two cross country races on consecutive day’s Adams performed extremely well finishing in 37^th place.

Congratulations also to Anna Kasapis who competed in the Australian Masters 35+ Mixed Relay with her team finishing 4^th in a time of 14:44.