Cross Country Winter 2023

With the cross country season having come to an end, it is the perfect moment to look back! In this blog, we will do just that: provide an overview of the performances of Asterix members in the cross country races of January and February.

Eersel

For many Gauls, this was the first cross after a well-deserved Christmas break. It was sure to bring spectacular racing given the rain in the days leading up to the race: lots of mud!

In the long cross, Lennert managed to finish in 6th place. A little over 2 minutes later, Ramon finished in 10th place. Ramon doesn’t like the course in Eersel; he has some bad memories from the year before. John also ran the long cross, finishing in 14th.

Lennert in full focus during his 9 kilometer race.

In the short cross, there were some more Gauls participating! With the women, Anne managed to win the cross with a convincing lead of almost a full minute!

Anne storming her way through the field to a well-deserved victory.

With the men, a front pack emerged after a few hundred meters into the race, with Matthijs losing the sprint to William (a former Asterix member). Completing the podium was Uko, who managed to beat Lorens after his defeat to him in Reusel. Lorens finished 13 seconds behind Uko in 5th, Piotr followed 21s behind Lorens in 6th in his first cross in more than a year!

Justin ran to a respectable 8th place, beating Vincent (who finished 9th) in the process. Only 14 seconds behind Vincent was Maron, securing 13th place.

Best

The sixth cross of the Kempian Cross Competition is the cross in Best, our secretary’s home race!

In the long cross, Lennert Unleashed his Inner Purple and finished in 5th in a very strong field! Ramon followed in 8th place, beating many competitors that had beaten him in Eersel. John also participated, and he finished in 17th.

On to the short cross!

This time, Anne was not able to win the cross. Still, she managed to finish second, only 7 seconds behind the winner. She is still leading in the standings of the Kempian Cross Competition, however!

Anne trying to get rid of a competitor in a hilly part of the course.

With the men, an exciting fight for the lead ensued, with Lorens (of all people) taking the lead for a few hundred meters. He eventually finished in 4th, with Matthijs beating him to the podium by 5 seconds. Running his first cross in a very long time, still finishing only 7 seconds behind Lorens, was Jordi!

Behind Jordi we find Justin in 6th, Vincent in 8th, and Maron in 11th.

After the cross, there is always time to take a group picture!

Mostly happy faces after the cross. Can you spot who was the most content with their performance?

Valkenswaard

The second-to-last cross of the Kempian Cross Circuit took place in Valkenswaard. Again, many Gauls participated!

In the long cross, Adomas got 3rd after a great run. Jules and Ramon battled for the entire race, with Jules creating a gap to Ramon. Ramon tried to close it on the last lap, in which he succeeded, after which he was outkicked by Jules. They finished in 7th and 8th place. Then there were also Lennert and John, finishing in 15th and 16th.

On to the short cross! This time, Anne was again able to win the short cross! Anna did great, finishing in 3rd!

With the men, Matthijs was able to beat Uko in an exciting race with a strong kick at the end. Lorens was able to beat Jordi again by starting very fast, fading very hard, but then kicking strong enough to win by 1 second. This meant that the podium was again entirely Asterix!

Asterix completely dominated the short cross with the men.

Piotr finished 5th, a little under 20 seconds behind Lorens and Jordi. Another 20 seconds behind him, we had Justin in 6th. Then we had Vincent in 9th, and Domingos in 11th. Unfortunately, Domingos was outkicked: better luck next time!

All in all: a great trophy hunt: 3 gold, 1 silver, 3 bronze!

Can you count how many runners were happy about their performances?

PAARSE BOSCROSS + NSK CROSS

The very last cross of the Kempian Cross Competition was our very own Paarse Boscross. This year – which was the second edition – the event would be supplemented by the NSK Cross!

Even though many Gauls were busy with organizing these events, there were still many that competed.

One of these was Ramon, who ran very well, finishing in 6th place. He was quite content with his result until he remembered he also subscribed for the short cross at the NSK Cross….

Credits to Domingos for the meme.

Robin, Fabian and John also ran the long cross, and they finished in 8th, 11th and 15th places respectively.

In the short cross, Justin managed to secure his first podium of the season with a great second place finish! With this, he secured his third place in the standings!

Justin during his silver-winning race.

In the short cross for the women, Anne won the race, securing her win in the standings of the Kempian Cross Competition!

Anne on her way to win yet another cross!

After the Paarse Boscross, the NSK Cross 2023 was organized as well! With more than 160 subscriptions, this NSK Cross was the biggest ever in terms of participants (according to the ZeuS archives)!

Given the large amount of subscriptions, the committee decided to split the short cross for the men and women.

This was not possible for the long cross because of the time schedule. This meant that more than 70 enthusiastic runners started their cross a few minutes past 14:00.

The women’s race was won by Carmen Oosterkamp (Leiden Atletiek), with our very own Carmen Reep (Asterix) in second, followed by Sanne van Beek (PAC). In the men’s race, our former chairman Finn Timmermans won. An exciting sprint-finish decided the silver medal in favor of Tim Verhoeven (Tartlétos), who outkicked our former treasurer Lennert van Dam (Asterix).

Not finishing on the podium, but running in purple were Tom Reep (who finished in front of Finn, but he competed Out of Competition), Willem (who finished fourth), and Ju-Young Kim (who finished in 26th place).

Finn and Lennert couldn’t find a flag that quickly, so they just decided to take one of the banners for their podium-picture!

After the long crosses, the short cross was scheduled. With more than 50 men at the starting line, the sprint to the first corner turned out to be thrilling! In the end, Matthijs van Schaik (AV Clytoneus) edged out Niels Buitenhuis (AV Daventria) by 2 seconds, with Soufian Koraichi (AV Caesar) a little further behind.

Also running the short cross in purple were Ramon (13th), Wessel (18th), Vincent (21st), Kjell (24th), Justin (25th), Tom Stuth (31st) and Boudewijn (34th).

The guys of the short cross sprinting their way to the first corner.

The short cross for the women was no less exciting! Kim Deschka (Tartlétos) win with a difference of only 1 second, beating Jana Bersee (Ciko ‘66). Robin Beijer (Dodeka) was able to claim the bronze medal.

Of course there were also Gauls participating, with Meike (9th), Lianne (17th) and Merel (29th).

For the podium finishers, the committee arranged Klok-beer!

After the long and short crosses, it was time for an event with some more team-spirit: the mixed relay! Just before the start, the committee found out that there were not enough relay batons! Luckily, the forest provided more than enough sticks to help solve this problem! Many Strava Crowns were taken with trying to get those gold medals. In the end the team from NSAV ‘t Haasje turned out to be the strongest.

Also in the ludic event, ‘t Haasje turned out to be the strongest: they managed to run (and drink!) the fastest, winning a massive trophy.

After all this running, it was time to eat lots and lots, and afterwards party!

The committee would like to thank all participants for their participation! Some pictures are already available, see

*Jan Janssen
*Lars van der Valk
*Patrick Spruytenburg
*Maron Janssen
*Google Photos Album

Next to some pictures from other photographers, also an aftermovie was made! See also this link.

Honorable mentions

While Asterix may be a part of the Kempian Cross Competition, there is also the LimBra Cross Competition. Often, Gauls compete there as well.

In Asten, Hannah and Meike finished second an third in the short cross for the women, starting the year off right!

In Helden, Hannah unfortunately barely missed the podium, finishing 4th.

In Venray, Finn finished in an unfortunate 4th place, in a very strong field. Carmen and Hannah managed to secure the bronze in the long and short cross respectively.

Written by Lorens