A strengthened squad of 25 athletes competed for the men’s team on Saturday in the Horsenden Hill Met League round 2 fixture.
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.
