A bitterly cold afternoon greeted the runners and spectators at Uxbridge for round 3 of the Met League, with the added interest of the infamous river crossing for the senior men and women. Thankfully Kevin Fini (welcome back from Bromley!) and everyone else successfully navigated the ice cold waters and match reports will follow in the next few days plus some photos below to remind you of the day!
Senior mens report: Freezing conditions saw the men’s team place 4th at Uxbridge on Saturday.
Chris Hudson, studying at Southampton University, loyally travelled back to secure 10th place, our highest individual placing so far this season. Excellent packing from Dave Lawrence, Jack Whitebury, Micheal O’Sullivan and Kevin Fini gave us 5 athletes in the top 50. Of note, Kevin successfully negotiated the infamous stream on both laps and he now has complete closure on a previous year’s dunking.
Terry Mackin improved by 15 places from Match 2 achieving 100th spot. Up the age range, Mark Cursons made a welcome return from injury to win the V60 category finishing 162nd. Simon Sly also showed good form, improving by 70 places from Wormwood Scrubs with 171st place.
We welcomed several runners appearing at the Met League for the first time – Richard Antcliffe, Richard Tarling, Imad Ahmer, Andy Hoiles and Richard Francis. Special mention is made of Andy who for many years steeplechased in the Club’s National League Squad. He stoically remained on task to the finish despite both his studs falling apart on the first of the two laps.
Thanks as usual to Jim for managing the squad on the day, Tony for travelling south offering welcome support and Mike Lepps for his encouragement and camera work!
In conclusion, a pretty decent performance and we now look forward to the County Championships in early January.
Senior women: The return of Eilish O’Grady finishing 7th and Sofia Latham (13th) strengthened the womens Div 1 team as they scored well to place 4th team. Federica DeCaria (23rd) and Claire Bentley (30th) with Emily Antcliffe (48th), Jennifer Keale (86th) all running strongly on the challenging course.
Special mention to Jo Finill (114th) on the return to competition just 10 weeks after the birth of her son Jack! Charlotte Mackay was 117th with Sarah Saunders next home and improving to place 126th.
Amongst the junior athletes there was another solid run from Amae Van Zyl as she finished 7th overall in the combined U17/U15 junior womens race and kudos to the U13 girls as they stormed to a second place team finish! Katie Dalton was 6th with sister Beth 8th, Milly Sanders 15th, Leila Westcarr 28th and Ellen Antcliffe coming home in 38th – very well done girls!
The photos are free to download but if reused on social media please give a credit to Mike Lepps.
