Harrow athletes were in action at Uxbridge today for the third round Met League fixture tackling the notorious course featuring the ski slope and for the senior men and women, the water splash through the stream! Whilst the results are being pulled together by the league organisers, below are my photos to remind you of the agony or was that ecstasy of your race performance 😉
Senior men’s report:
Twenty senior men took on the stream and ski slope at Uxbridge in the Met league round 3 in warm but gloopy winter conditions. After the race the A team are in 8th position out of 15 in division 1 and the B team 12 of 15 in division 2 as we didn’t quite field a full B team. Harry Lupton led the team home in an excellent 19th place followed by Kevin Fini with his first race of the season in 34th. Jack Whitebury ran well again for 51st with Tejas Hirani close behind in 64th. Captain Jim Copper was 3rd vet 50 in 85th – well done Jim. Fergal Keany (140th) , Adam Towle (167th) and John Bignall (200th and 4th in his age) came next. Marcus Brown (210th) , John Corcoran (214th), Simon Sly (225th) and Chris Finill (237th) were all within about a minute of one another to wrap up the A team.
Henry Jakszta headed the B team, taking a lot of places in the second half of the race in 245th. Andy Hoiles was 3rd in his age and 250th overall with an excellent run. Richard Tarling (287th) showed his strength passing Nick Andrews (298th) on the hill on lap 2. Nick ignored his own advice on spikes with a tumble on a muddy corner nearly taking out Graeme Jones who was close behind in 301st. Rob Hawkes followed Graeme in 302nd with Graeme Barlow 314th and regular Tom Morris in 394th finishing off the team. Well done to everyone on surviving the stream and hill for another year!
Senior women:
For the senior womens team, there was a welcome return from Eilish O’Grady, who placed 14th as first scorer. Finishing in 35th place was Emily Antcliffe, continuing her current great form and next home was Jo Finill, a strong 65th. Disappointment for Issy Jones who was forced to withdraw on the second lap following a fall but good to see her back training tonight at Bannisters! Jen Keal was 89th, having run an easy parkrun in the morning and on Sunday went on to race another muddy cross country course at Cirencester in the Oxford League. Sarah Saunders, 101st and Renata Olas, 120th completed the scoring six for the A team as they placed 11th team in Div 1.
For the U15 girls race, great results for Beth and Katie Dalton as they finished 12 & 14th respectively with Nilou 33rd ad Grace 37th. In the U13 girls there was an excellent 7th place finish for Soufia Atek.
Congrats to Mark Cursons who was selected for the British & Irish masters cross country international fixture in Belfast and ran superbly to come home third scorer for England who won the team title! England were far and away the clear team winners – shame our rugby team can’t emulate them!
Closer to home yesterday at Parliament Hill, the home of British cross country racing, Daniel Titcombe led home the small Harrow team to finish 25th in the London Cross Country championships.
The junior athletes were also in action with strong runs from Luca Russo, 12th in the U15 boys, with Blake Mitchell finishing 14th. For the girls, Beth Dalton was 55th with Nilou Heath within 10 seconds and placing 64th. Well done to all our athletes!
Jack Whitebury is preparing well for the next Met League – here he is below pushing Gus in the buggy at Harrow parkrun in a swift 18:46 – I’d be happy with that sans buggy! 😉
On a firm, undulating course the team finished in 6th spot, an improvement from our 7th position at Claybury. There were some notable individual performances including Jack Whitebury, leading the team home in 59th position followed closely by Micheal O’Sullivan in 66th place. Joe Tarling, the youngest member of the squad, made his Met League debut at Senior level and finished an extremely promising 76th – one to watch over the coming months.
Club Captain, Jim Cooper was second M50 in 115th place. In 158th place Mark Cursons again won the M60 category and takes his good form to the international cross country event in Belfast next week where he will represent England Masters. Making his debut for the Club, we welcomed second claimer, Marcus Brown, who was our 10th scorer in 175th.
In the Masters category the team finished 4th,up from our 7th position at Claybury with coach Mike Lepps finishing second in the v65 category.
In the combined U17/15s boys race, Charlie Robert led the charge home with close support from Blake Mitchell and Dominic Frearson. In the girls equivalent race, Beth Dalton had the standout performance as she finished 12th with Sian Wright, Annabelle Suffield and Nilou Heath all in close support. For the u13 girls, the squad continues to perform well as Soufia Atek finished 13th with Vivienne and Ottilie close behind in 25 & 26th position.
For the senior women, Claire Bentley continued her resurgent form from the previous week at Kingsbury and led the senior womens team home again in a highly competitive race as she finished 43rd. Emily Antcliffe also closed strongly in 48th with Issy Jones 70th and a return from recently married Jo Finill in 84th position who’s 1 year old son was also on the course supporting the teams!
Thanks to support from Chris (the Tunnocks wafer king), Julia and Tony plus all the very welcome and vocal parents from the earlier races 🙂
For anyone who may be interested in helping the Club (and specifically the Met League) we are being asked to ensure that we provide volunteers to help either in the race finish zone or marshal the courses. If you would like to support the Club in either capacity then please reach out to Tom Morris, our officials manager, or head coach Mike Lepps if you don’t know Tom yet.
The Kingsbury course was much better for the athletes compared to last years flooded conditions but still proved to be demanding with a long hill to negotiate going out on each large lap. Very nice to see Claire and Henry returning to competition after some time out. The results will come through in a few days but our senior mens 8 to score did win third place and came home with a nice set of medals! Photos below and results here.
Senior mens report: The senior team kicked off their cross country season with round 1 of the Met League held at Claybury. Seventeen ran in the men’s team in good conditions with the main challenge being the steep up and down section in the woods. It’s a little nerve racking burning out your legs going up to then have to go straight back down!
The team were led home by the rapid Daniel Titcomb in 29th. Jack Whitebury in 66th enjoyed a run without a buggy and was closely followed by young Zack Atek who was also 7th in the U20s. Captain Jim Cooper came home in 108th and 3rd in the V50s followed by 800m specialist Joshua Poncia in 121st and then V60 first placed Mark Cursons in 123rd. Chris Jones followed in 130th and Simon Sly made it a 3rd family completion of the day in 180th.
Met league debutant John Corcoran ran well for 196th before heading off to top up the calories at a chocolate show in London. Chris Finill also won his V65 age group in 202nd, Rob Hawkes (244th), debutant Daniel Clark (264th) and Nick Andrews (271st) pulled one another around for decent runs.
Jabbil Chibwana was next in 320th with Nick Jones 349th (4th v65), Martin Aslan 368th and Tom Morris bringing the team home in 382nd. Some of us retreated to the Woodford club bar for a well-deserved beer or coffee with the women’s team who we did appreciate encouraging us on our runs. All in all it was an enjoyable first round which left us in 8th place in division 1 (of 15 teams).
The venue for round 2 on 9th November is closer to home at Horsenden Hill which hopefully will see a few more of our athletes across all ages in action!
