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!
Jonathan Collier took to the roads again after his recent gallop around the Scrubs in the Met League, this time competing in the Boulogne Half Marathon. Doesn’t look as if Jonathan eased up much in his training last week so to finish 9th in a time of 65:20 was a very strong performance!
Over at the other end of the Med, Dave Branfoot is enjoying life in the sunshine and recently ran the Larnaca Half Marathon in 77:34 to place 8th overall and first v45! Last month Dave ran 35:09 in the Limassol 10K road race.
Whilst the scheduled London Youth Games were due to be held in the morning at Parliament Hill but got cancelled the night before due to the weather warning, the senior championship races went ahead as planned. As you can see from Jim Cooper’s photos below, the mud was worthy of ‘Parly Hill’ and quite a change from what we encountered at the Scrubs last week. Well done to Jen, Curtis, Terry and Joe for braving the conditions!
With a revised course layout and the sun shining all afternoon, the Clubs trip to Wormwood Scrubs for round 2 of the Met League turned out to be almost a ‘walk in the park’! Both our senior mens and womens A teams finished a strong 6th fielding large squads but the girls U11’s stole the day with their 3rd place team finish – bravo! Below is a joint collection of photos from Mark and myself.
Senior men:
Glorious Autumnal colours and sunshine greeted an impressive men’s turnout on Saturday at the Scrubs. 27 men represented the Club and a much improved performance from Claybury was the result.
Highlights included: Jonathan Collier – shifting from the roads to the mud for 20th place – our first scorer.
9 runners inside the first 100 with Dave Lawrence, Micheal O’Sullivan, Narayan Satheesh, Tejas Hirani and Juniors Liam Fenn and Julio Calvino-Palomares all making their first appearances this season.
Debut runs from Simon Sly and Mike Crisp. A strong middle order which saw the Club finish 6th on the day but, more significantly, move up from 9th to 6th overall after 2 matches.
The Vets Team maintained their 5th position after two matches. Jim Cooper and Chris Finill both finished second in their respective age groups.
Thanks as usual to Ian Farr for support on the day especially with respect to the gazebo.
Senior women:
The Harrow women had a fantastic race, with Federica and Claire B battling for the top spot. Federica finished 17th, and Claire came in just 2 seconds later at 19th. Emily, recovering from a calf injury, secured 46th place, while Issy, despite a recent half marathon, finished 53rd. Jessica R, despite battling illness, contributed crucial points in 85th place. Jennifer K completed the A team in 105th.
Charlotte, busy with a PhD, impressed in 127th place. Sarah, showing growth since last season, finished 141st. Katie KW edged out Lorna in a sprint finish for 9th club spot, with Katie achieving a 5km PB. Jo Fl returned in 163rd, closely followed by Renata in 164th. Laure, absent for a while, finished 187th. Katia, on a strong run of form, claimed 14th place. Trina, a busy runner, had a solid run in 212th.
Claire R, facing a tight schedule, secured 214th place. In her second XC race, Danielle improved to 217th. Claudine, gaining confidence, finished 221st.
Overall, the Harrow women’s strong performance resulted in a 6th place finish in division 1 and an impressive 1st place in the Vet’s division 2. Congratulations to everyone for their outstanding contributions!
Juniors:
Joseph Tarling was first scorer (9th) in the U17s but disappointed as he thought he overcooked the start? Arthur Harris was only half a minute adrift as he finished 18th. Only 5s separated Dominic and Sam as they came in 26th & 28th respectively with Charlie only 10s behind them.
A strong performance from Vivek Chopra saw him finish 18th, just 4 places ahead of Ethan with Edward and Luca not far behind. Benedict was our only U11 runner on the day and placed 17th.
Amae Van Zyl had a terrific run in the U17/U15 combined race as she finished 6th overall and second in the U15s! It was great to see Kayla Saunders trying her hand at cross country again as she placed 14th in the U17s.
Nilou Heath led the U13s home (Beth & Katie were racing at St Albans in a schools regional race) and her finishing drive to the line looked fantastic! Solid runs from Soufia and Ellen in support. For the U11s, Vivienne was first home (10th) with Ottilie just 3 places later in 13th and Amelie only 8 seconds later.
The weather held off for our athletes at Kingsbury today but underfoot it was still the most mud and water anyone’s seen so far this in this new cross country season! The senior men finished 5th team with Jack Whitebury leading the squad home in a great top ten finish (8th) against stiff competition. Results for the two fixtures will take a day or 2 to arrive but below is a selection of photos to whet your appetites.
