Nick Andrews report on Saturdays season ending round 5 fixture for the Met League:
Seventeen senior men tackled the Trent Park mud in the final met league fixture of the season with welcome support from Jim Cooper, Declan Trainer and Tony Bush. We transitioned across the road twice from thick mud to thinner mud and it’s fair to say some love it and some really don’t!
Daniel Titcomb had another great race coming in in 21st place and it was great to have Chris Hudson travelling to run in 35th place. Jack Whitebury and Joseph Tarling also had speedy runs with 66th and 70th, Joseph coming an excellent 2nd in U20.
Hero of the day Tejas Hirani came 122nd after his shoe sucked of and he carried it for 2.5km – amazing! Joshua Pancia was next in 178th followed by a stunning mud loving run from Chris Finill with his run of the season in 212th and 1st in his age of course. Coming in a bunch with solid runs were Marcus Brown, Simon Sly and Henry Jakszta in 225, 226 and 228th. Simon has been one of our ever presents this year – well done. John Corcoran in 257 and Nick Andrews in 296 completed the A team.
Close behind Nick was Graham Barlow in 301 followed by Richard Tarling in 323. Ever present Rob Hawkes ran through a cold to come 340th – a real trooper, with Stephen Warburton next in 347 and finally it was good to have Martin Aslan for his first run coming in in 365th. In the fixture we came 11th of 15 teams and for the vets 12th of 15.
With all the results in we have ended up 9th in division 1 of 15 teams and 5th in the vets league of 15. The league was won by Highgate followed by Victoria Park then Heathside. Individually you had to do 4 races for a ranking and we had one champion! Chris Finill was first in V65 – superb, also one silver medallist in Jim Cooper (V50) and two more top 10s in the V50 with Nick Andrews 8th and Richard Tarling 9th. Our best senior was Jack Whitebury in 26th. Well done all. Below is a comparison of this season to the previous 3.
I think a fair analysis of the met league season is that it wasn’t as good as we hoped. We had the usual number competing at least once, but fewer total runs than last year by 14 which all adds up to fewer points. Note that 4230 is not as good as last year’s 4205 and well behind 2022 because the league increased from 12 to 15 teams. The vets team has maintained top 5 but really we need more support from the youngsters! Nevertheless, we will be back next season in division 1 and lets all aim to get back to the top 5.
Thanks to all for you great efforts in the Met league, and good luck to those doing the nationals in two weeks. There is also the 12 stage relay to come before the end of season so lets get a really good team for that.
Senior Women: The Harrow AC women’s senior team delivered a solid performance in their latest Metropolitan League race. Leading the team was Emily Antcliffe (FV40), finishing 17th in 33:47. Federica De Caria followed in 39th place with a time of 35:14, while Jo Finill secured 52nd in 36:04. Other strong contributions came from Jennifer Keal (83rd, 38:51), Katie Kelly-Watkins (86th, 39:09), and Sarah Saunders (FV45, 119th, 42:50). Additional finishers included Renata Olas (FV50, 130th, 43:39), Charlotte Mackey (138th, 44:27), Jo Fleet (FV55, 152nd, 47:28), Katia Andrews (FV50, 161st, 50:44), and Claire Rosser (FV40, 162nd, 52:46). Their collective efforts continue to strengthen the team’s presence in the league standings.
The U15 girls’ team put in a strong performance, securing 6th place overall with 109 points. Leading the squad was Katie Dalton, finishing 22nd in 20:22, closely followed by Grace Crisp in 24th place with a time of 20:24. Beth Dalton claimed 33rd in 21:12, while Ellen Antcliffe (47th, 23:30) and Gracie Lewis (49th, 24:29) completed the team’s scoring. Their combined efforts contributed to a solid team result in the competition.
