The Senior men’s senior squad travelled to round 3 of the Chiltern League at Luton with an under strength squad as close to 10 regulars were unavailable but still managed to produce some strong performances.
The Senior men retained 5th place in the team standings and the Veteran men retained 1st place.
Damian Nevins placed 2nd followed closely by the ever-consistent duo of Jim Cooper in 18th and Luke Hunt in 48th. Joe Gammell fresh from finishing university coursework and Noor Mohamoud staying off the coffee both had their best races of the winter coming home in 62nd and 71st. Peter Norris had a solid race in 88th place and Declan Traynor continued his gradual return to racing in 94th position.
Nick Andrews had unconventional preparation for his 600m race the following day as he led home Steve Bland and Graeme Jones close to the top 100. Sam Fenn had a good start but suffered stomach issues in the latter part of the race and Tom Morris (guest) improved by over a hundred places from match 2.
For the ladies Gill Bland was the sole woman running coming with a good 16th and 3rd in the V35 category, before being handed the baby allowing Steve to run!
A small Juniors team, battled the worst of the wind and rain for their races – true cross country muddy conditions across open fields!
U11s – Julian Luiz continued to run well with 12th, with Zac Evans a good 23rd on debut. Emily Axtell as the only girl ran well for 41st
U13s – Joshua Luiz was best in 23rd, with Oliver Southon a strong 37th. Kayla Saunders came in 27th and Kyra May 39th
U15s – Chris Hudson had an outstanding run in 4th, and Sofia Latham improved position again in 22nd
U17s – Chris Morris came a consistent 25th in a competitive race.
Race photos from Luton can be found here: https://www.oxonraces.com/photos/2018-12-01-luton/
Wolverton 5 mile road race:
With a new start and finish three of the Senior men tackled the Wolverton 5 mile road race. Damian Nevins was 9th in 25:46, Chris Jones 36th in 28:44 and Peter Norris 52nd in 30:23.
