Battling soggy conditions and a volley of enemy elbows, Jack Amos ran to his first B.C. cross-country running championship title on Saturday.

The 15-year-old Dawson City native faced-off against more than 30 other B.C. runners for top honours.

The three-kilometre course in Nanaimo, B.C. had the 14 and 15-year-old midget runners do a loop of the flat, grassy loop B, followed by a loop through the forested loop A, and finish with one more time through loop B.

Yukon coach Don White said the course was “wet and soggy” following days of rain on Vancouver Island.

He described the trails through the forest as being “narrower than ski trails” and said there were a few slick sections with pools of mud on the course.

Amos got into a good position after the mass start, staying in the lead group at about fourth place.

“They started off really quick and I was starting to think, ‘Holy cow, I might not be able to pull this off,’” he said.

Heading into the race, he thought he had a good shot of being on the podium. White figured he might be in the top five based on previous times.

At the end of the first lap the leader started to die and Amos moved up a spot.

Then, the race entered the forest.

“Jack was saying that he had a bit of difficulty with the lads in the woods,” said White. “He found the pace too slow and then tried to get past them.”

Only to find a wall of elbows in his path. Though frowned upon, it’s not uncommon for cross-country runners to block others’ paths when they try to pass.

“Every time I tried to make a move, people would get in front of me and elbow me,” said Amos.

When the course opened up a little on the downhill, Amos took advantage of the extra space and made his move to overtake the top two for the lead.

It paid off.

“Coming down the hill it was just me and another bloke up front and then I overtook him and then I just started to pull away from him on the last lap,” said Amos, who is known for his finishing speed.

“Jack has got a really good kick and that’s the one thing that he’s really got going for him,” said White.

On the last loop around the baseball diamonds, Amos continued to pull away. He crossed the finish line more than eight seconds ahead of the next runner.

His midget win is the best result a Yukoner has posted at B.C. Cross-Country Championships.

“At the end of it, he was really quite pleased,” said White.

At the finish line, Amos was enveloped in a hug from his grandmother, who lives on Vancouver Island and who saw him run for the first time at the race.

Amos, born and raised in Dawson City, said he only really started training for running a year ago, to get ready for the Western Canada Games, which he attended for athletics.

Then this winter, he was a member of the snowshoe running team at the Arctic Winter Games in Greenland, where he won a gold, silver and bronze – even when his snowshoe fell off three times during the race.

He has been training year-round for running now for about a year and continues to look forward to the future.

“I love it,” said Amos. “I’ve been doing it for a year now and I haven’t gotten tired. It’s pretty fun.”

He said his strong aerobic base likely comes from when he would skate ski into town for soccer practices, since his family lived about five-kilometres out of town.

Team Yukon had its largest contingent of runners competing at the B.C. Cross-Country Championships. Ten youth competed in the race, as well as Lindsay Carson, who raced in the senior women category and finished fourth; Kieran Halliday, who raced for University of British Columbia and finished 63rd in senior men; Jerome McIntyre was fifth of five in the men’s 50-54 division, while Don White was first in the men’s 65-69 two-person division.

“For all of them it was their first time at a major meet like this,” said White.

He noted that the mass start can be particularly difficult the first time. In the youth boys category, which three Yukoners competed in, there were 54 runners on the start line.

Joe Parker (28th), Darby McIntyre (31st) and Brahm Hyde (52nd) fared alright in the race.

White had asked McIntyre before the race not to go out too hard. He responded that he planned to stick with Parker throughout, which he did, finishing eight seconds behind.

Iliana Stehelin led for the first part of her midget girls race, but ultimately couldn’t keep the pace up. She finished 28th, while fellow Yukoner Kate Crocker was 29th in the 29-runner field.

The sun shone for the only time during the midget girls race, and as Stehelin and Crocker emerged from the forest into the open field, they said it was like running into a “wall of heat”.

Naiose Dempsey was fourth in the 13-year-old boys category.

Isaac O’Brien was eighth in the 12-year-old boys category, while Nathyn Sutton was 11th.

Hannah Shier was 27th of 30 in the junior girls category.

Up next will be the National Cross-Country Running Championships in Kingston, Ont. at the end of November.

White has invited both Amos and Parker to attend. Fellow Yukoner Carson is also expected to attend.

With files from Phil McLachlan.

See Tuesday’s Star for more coverage from the B.C. Cross-Country Running Championships.