Jim Cooper & Terry Mackin, Claire Bentley & Trina Dawkins headed up a small group of Harrow athletes visiting Hackney Marshes for the North London champs. Claire placed an excellent 4th just missing out on a medal and Jim finished 21st in the senior men. More results to follow when available…
Following the first Met League was the SEAA XC relays at Wormwood Scrubs where we fielded one senior womens team comprising of Rachel Ayrton, Sarah Saunders & Jennifer Keal , it was another day of really strong running from our women resulting in a 28th place finish.
The mens team comprised of Daniel Titcombe (9th), Curtis Stevens (13th), John Corcoran (19th with Joe Gammell on the glory leg bring the team home in 22nd position. Our U13 girls team of Katie & Beth Dalton and Milly Sanders ran strongly to finish 7th team and they fielded a B team with Nilou Heath, Soufia Atek and Leila Westcarr who were 19th!
The Club launched its Met League campaign on Saturday on a twisty challenging Claybury course, bathed in Autumn sunshine. With several athletes unavailable for this first fixture our A Team closed in 8th position in Division 1 with the B Team 11th in Division 2. Our Masters Team came 5th in that category.
There were strong performances across the team with Daniel Titcomb finishing 23rd and also one of Britain’s top obstacle sports specialists and our first athlete home. Next counter in was Jack Whitebury in 39th and fresh from his recent sub 33 at the Vitality 10k. Curtis Stevens recently ran the Middlesex 10k finishing in 35.34 and finished 61st. Jim Cooper was 68th and first in the V45 category and Fergal Keaney placed 100th , a solid run after a break from competition over the Summer.
A welcome return to competitive cross country racing for Terry Mackin placing 112th – an athlete with real pedigree as he was a National Cross Country Champion as a schoolboy! Next home was Adam Towle in 173th in good form after his sub 37minute 10k at Battersea Park. London Ever Present Chris Finill was 200th and first in the V60 category and Graeme Jones in hot pursuit with 202nd – a decent run and a welcome return to club competition.
John Bignall ran in 224th for a very solid run with Nick Andrews next home in 250th – the most versatile athlete in the Club and now in his 10th season of competition for the Club! Joe Gammell ran in with 259th and a welcome return to competition having last competed at the 12 stage relays in April followed by Rob Hawkes – a really consistent and committed member of the squad having competed 39 times for Harrow so far in 2023!
Jabbil Chibwana was 312th -a regular Met League athlete who also is versatile enough to cover sprints and jumps in the Summer. Bringing home the veterans scoring was Mike Lepps in 335th and Gary Collins with 388th who has recently returned to regular competition and we hope to see him regularly at the Met Leagues.
We expect to have a stronger squad for the next fixture which is at Wormwood Scrubs on 11th November.
Finally please remember to bring the race number you were issued with to all Met Leagues – athletes have the same allocated number for all 5 races.
Womens senior team: Claire Bentley led the ladies team home as she ran to a superb 8th place with an in form Federica De Caria in close support in 13th. Jennifer Keal was delighted with her strong run as she finsihed in 61st with Emily Antcliffe following home in 66th. Renata Olas made it a family occasion as she finished 139th having watched her daughter Vivenne finish 12th in the U11’s earlier! Katia Andrews, 156th, Claire Rosser 158th, Danielle Lee 160th and Claudine Crisp 162nd and making her cross country debut brought the team home in 7th place.
In the U15 girls race the Club welcomed Amae Van Zyl, having just joined Harrow and having a great race as she finished 6th (4th u15) as they ran with the U17s. Sam Tarling was only just returning from his sickbed and did well to place 87th as he was also competing with u17 athletes. For the boys U13s, Ethan Hinds, 25th and Eliyaan Jamal placed 26th.
The U13 girls continued their strong winter 2023 form with a third place team result: Katie Dalton, 5th, sister Beth was 9th, Nilou Heath 22nd and Ellen Antcliffe was 44th. Well done to Eloise Suffield,18th, and Niva Patel 20th who also ran with Vivienne in the U11s.
Emma Beardmore was successful in taking the European Champion titles for Discus (39.94m) and the 9Kg weight throw (15.18). For good measure Emma also won the Hammer silver medal with 47.33m and bronze in the shot with a 11.27m putt!
For the v40 mens 100m Leroy Slue was third with 11.46s whilst in the mens V45 100m Josh Wood was 9th = with 11.85s. In the mens v60 5000m, Mark Cursons was also 9th with 18:03.5.
A very pleasant afternoon for Harrow youngsters turning out at Horsenden Hill for this opening NWLL XC fixture of the new winter season. Congrats to Beth and Katie Dalton for their marvelous first and second places in the girls U13 race!
As expected, the standard of competition was extremely high for this very early outing and we finished 81st out of the 107 competing teams.
Chris Hudson, making the trip up from Southampton University ran our fastest leg averaging 5.11 miles for the undulating, twisting course. Adam Towle, a marathon specialist will be focusing on shorter distances over the coming months and we hope will be a key member of the Met League squad.
Curtis Stevens , whose 5k times have improved steadily over the Summer, ran a very competent leg whilst the ever dependable Jim Cooper eased round for another sub 22 minute clocking.
John Corcoran, who is a relative newcomer to the Club and previously a very successful powerlifter, continues to build on his track performances in the Summer and now looks forward to his first full cross country season with us.
Special thanks to Mike Lepps for his camera work and post-race coffee purchasing skills and also to Ian Farr who arrived at the venue early in the morning and left at well past 5pm supporting and encouraging club members throughout his stay.
For the womens team, Eilish O’Grady led them out on stage 1 and coming home in 32nd place, with the team eventually finishing 45th as Sofia Latham improved several places on leg 4.
The boys team were delayed by an official’s mistake on first handover but came 31st out 63, whilst the girls came 16th out of 42 which was a great result given the strength of competition.
