With the breaking news that Ian Farr had passed away over Christmas there was a sombre mood amongst our runners at Horsenden Hill on Saturday for the Middx. County CC championships.
However, both Harrow AC’s Junior and Senior men produced performances worthy of his memory and the huge contribution he had made to the Club over many seasons. Phil Benson and I are both immensely proud of the response from all Club athletes.
The Junior team, led home by Chris Hudson took bronze team medals with Chris running very strongly for an individual silver. The results show how important every runners scoring position is and is often the difference between winning a medal and just missing out.
In the Senior race the team also gained bronze medals over a sodden 12k course on which a snorkel and flippers would have ranked alongside 18mm spikes as weapons of choice.
Journeying back from Sweden, Damian Nevins ran strongly for 14th place and was hotly pursued by Jack Whitebury in 15th and Micheal O’Sullivan in 17th,
Tejas Hirani raced well over the Christmas break and was rewarded with 27th and Chris Jones, back from Devon also ran strongly. Inspired by his London Marathon place for April, Curtis Stevens closed the six to score team in 32nd.
Thanks in particular to Jim Cooper for coordinating the onerous entry arrangements by entering a total of 55 Harrow athletes across all age groups.
Great support on the day was given by Graeme Jones and Declan Traynor both of whom, unable to run themselves, lent valuable support to the team effort.
There were further success for the U17 men as Michael Cattini also took the individual silver and the team of Zack Atek and Joseph Tarling were also rewarded with silver medals.
Sofia Latham was delighted to win the silver medal in the Womens U20 race despite eventually losing both her shoes! More duct tape will be required for the Inter Counties.
Amae Van Zyl had a strong race in the U15 girls race placing 6th and the U13 girls were once again the stars as Katie Dalton won the race with sister Beth placing 6th and a team gold medal with Soufia Atek and Leila Westcarr!
