Archived News 2011

Saturday 22nd October, 2011 - Liddiard Trophy, Kingsbury - Valley Lift the Lidd again at Kingsbury

It was a case of deja vu at Kingsbury on Saturday, as a strong performance from the TVH men's team saw them once again lift the Liddiard Trophy. It was a comprehensive victory for the Valley men who finished just over 100 points ahead of 2nd team Hillingdon, a much wider winning margin than in last year's race. Warm and dry weather on the day made for firm conditions underfoot and a fast paced race on this 3 lap 8k cross country course around the undulating grasslands of Fryent Country Park.

A strong turnout of 17 Valley men made them one of the largest teams on the start line and as the race began 2 of our youngest runners, Mohamud Aadan and Naz Dawit, hit the front of the field and never looked back. It was another fine performance from Mo, who came home to win by a comfortable 1 minute margin, giving him back to back victories after an excellent win in the first Met League cross country at Woodford 2 weeks ago. It wasn't all plain sailing for Mo though, as a misdirection on the first lap sent the field around a long lap instead of a short lap, putting the runners and spectators into a state of confusion as the lap order should have been 1 short followed by 2 long laps. A second short lap put the race back on course and despite the confusion it didn't put Mo and Naz off their stride, as they were both well clear in 1st and 2nd going into the final mile. Unfortunately the race confusion wasn't over for Naz, as Mo had pulled away going up the penultimate hill and left Naz on his own in 2nd, at which point he decided to add some extra mileage before the finish by turning left instead of right onto the final hill! By the time he realised his mistake Naz had lost a number of places and despite his best efforts he couldn't close the gap back to 2nd and came home in 6th place.

Great runs from Sean Renfer and Andrew Lawrence saw them take full advantage of this, as they finished in 4th and 5th respectively, just a few seconds ahead of Naz in 6th. A fast improving Andy Fooks took 12th place, followed by Steve Norris in 19th, Matt Ponting in 21st and a good run from Phil McCorquodale on his Valley debut to finish the 8 to score team in 22nd place.There was strong backup for the 8 man winning team provided by Manuel Da silva in 34th, another good Valley debut from Tony Truepenny-Phillipson in 36th, and Richard Bell in 44th. A trademark sprint finish over the final 400m from Lee Mahon took him past Phil Wetton in 47th and Lee Benjamin in 46th to earn Lee 45th place. Richard Hooley was next home in 52nd, with Mike Wilson in 61st and Tony Smith closing the team in 81st place out of a field of 92 finishers.

Not to be outdone the Valley women's team also struck gold, with a fine run from Lisa Da Silva that saw her win the women's 4.8k race by a comfortable margin. In the women's race Lisa was backed-up by Holly Eagan, but a team medal wasn't to be as a number of absentees on the day put the women's team out of the running.

Congratulations to Mo and Lisa on fantastic individual wins and to the 8 man team making it triple gold on the day!

Let's see if we can make it another treble next year by retaining the trophy for 3 years in a row!

Up The Valley,
Phil.

Team Race Results

1. TVH                   90.
2. Hillingdon        194.
3. Ealing              195.
4. Serpentine      390.

Individual Race Results

1.   Mohamud Aadan                   24m 24s.
4.   Sean Renfer                           25m 52s.
5.   Andrew Lawrence                  25m 59s.
6.   Naz Dawit                              26m 01s.
12. Andy Fooks                            26m 53s.
19. Steve Norris                          27m 44s.
21. Matt Ponting                          28m 31s.
22. Philip McCorquodale              28m 33s.
34. Manuel Da Silva                     29m 50s.
36. Tony Truepenny-Phillipson      30m 04s.
44. Richard Bell                            31m 26s.
45. Lee Mahon                             31m 34s.
46. Lee Benjamin                        31m 36s.
47. Philip Wetton                         31m 41s.
52. Richard Hooley                      32m 24s.
61. Mike Wilson                           33m 12s.
81. Tony Smith                            38m 07s.

Saturday 22nd October, 2011 - North West London YA CC League, match 1, Harrow

After a nine year gap, a fixture was held at the Bannister Stadium, Harrow for the North West London Young Athletes League. It was extremely well supported with a good number of contestants in all the races. The first race for the Under 11 Girls was held in an adjoining field and the girls ran twice round it to complete 1200m. For Thames Valley Harriers, Madeline Lloyd tried to stay with the leading pack but on the second lap dropped to 10^th place and was almost caught on the line by another Valley girl, Annabel Barnard. They were both given the same time. Having her first run for TVH, Zara Hooley finished 20^th against many girls who were a year older than her. Sarah Goodhart and Eleanor Eden were close behind her and finished 23^rd and 25^th from the 33 finishers. The team finished 4^th out of 10 teams. In the Under 11 Boys race, George Goodhart had a great run to finish in 3^rd place and George Barnes, another newcomer, ran well to finish 11^th out of 37.

The Under 13 Girls Team had twins India and Kosana Weir moving up to this age group. India had a very good run to finish 3^rd followed closely home by Chiara Kafero-Roberts in 5^th. Kosana had a battle with club-mate Rosie Vallance as they finished 9^th and 10^th.They also won their team race. With just five minutes to spare, new boy Lucillo Burrell arrived and had to be kitted out with club vest and a race number. He then went on to have an impressive run and kept up with Karim Mahaddine until the finishing sprint. They also passed a flagging Abraham Mendes Da Costa who had been with the leaders for half of the 3000m but then had a bad patch. Cassius Rathbone made up the scoring team with his useful 15^th position. Also having a promising run was Samuel Barnard who came back to running after missing last years events.

Our only Under 15 Girl competitor, Eve Goodhart showed improved form to finish 5^th in a field of 24. Another disappointed boy was Joe Gilbert who is ranked the best Under 15 Valley boy in his race. Starting fast with Joe Cooper, they were just behind the leaders until having to run up a hill Joe Gilbert lost his momentum and started to fall back. Then James Horrex, having his best run of the season, passed him with Michael Imo and Louis Marriott also closed him down before the finish. This club rivalry enabled their team to finish in 3^rd place. There were fewer competitors in the U17 Men’s race but the standard was very high. With four boys running for the club they looked certain to be well placed in the team event. Unfortunately Sam Cooper had to drop out and although the others finished the course the team finished 5^th. Akubar Yahye had a good run to finish 9^th but Ayuub Abdullahi and Robert Vallance finished 14^th and 16^th.

Results. U11G. 10, M. Lloyd 6:15; 11, A. Barnard 6:15; 20, Z. Hooley 6:49; 23, S. Goodhart 6:55; 25, E. Eden 7:07. Team 4^th.

U13G. 3, I. Weir 8:37; 5, C. Kafero-Roberts 8:45; 8, K. Weir 8:59; 9, R. Vallance 8:11. Team 1^st.

U15G. 5, E. Goodhart 13:50.

U11B. 3, G. Goodhart 8:29; 11, G. Barnes 9:16. Team 5^th.

U13B. 5, K. Mahiddine 12:08; 7, L. Burrell 12:09; 8, A. Mendes Da Costa 12:17; 15, C. Rathbone 13:17; 24, S. Barnard 14:23. Team 1^st.

U15B. 8, J. Cooper 15:25; 11, J. Horrex 15:34; 13, M. Imo 15:47; 14, L. Marriott 15:50; 17, J. Gilbert 16:00. Team 3^rd.

U17M. 9, A. Yahye 19:13; 14, A. Abdullahi 20:14; 16, R. Vallance 21:04. Team 5^th.

National Road Relays - 15/16^th Oct 2011, Sutton Coldfield

The National road relay championships were again held in the vast Sutton Park. The best Thames Valley Harriers performance came from the Women’s team who finished 20^th in a race with 72 teams finishing. Although this is the best result the Valley women have achieved, it also showed that there are better things to come for the club. On the first lap Katie Good was having her initiation into top class competition. Finishing in 24^th place on the first lap she found that she had come up against some tough opposition. This then gave Lisa Da Silva the incentive to pass 13 athletes on the second lap and bring the team home in 11^th position. Katie Mellor then improved the team’s position to 8^th on lap 3. Unfortunately, Siana Jones was not strong enough to maintain this position but held on to bring the team home 20^th. With several women unavailable for this race the cross country season looks promising and the team are looking forward to the next road relays in April.

The Young Athletes Relays were held on Sunday and the Valley were represented in three of the six relays. The Under 13 Girl’s relay girls were running further than they’d ever raced before (3.863 Km). On the first lap Kosana Weir was last after the initial rush start but she had been sensible and then passed 18 girls by the take-over to finish in 38^th place. Sister, India then moved up to 28^th on the second lap. Chiara Kafero-Roberts maintained her place to bring the team home even though she started very fast she failed to beat her last year’s time of 16:23.

Abraham Mendes Da Costa started steadily in the Under 13 Boys relay and finished in 24^th position. Karim Mahiddine then improve one place to 23^rd. On lap 3, Cassius Rathbone also ran sensibly in only his second race for the club to stay 23^rd. With several Under 15 Boys unavailable a virtual ‘B’ team finished 31^st out of 50 teams. On lap 1, Archie St Aubyn ran 19 seconds faster than last year to finish 29^th on the opening lap. Louis Marriott had some good opposition and dropped back to 32^nd but James Horrex gained a place for the team to finish 31^st.

Senior Women. Team 20th Under 13 Girls Team 28th

Katie Good 15:31 Kosana Weir 16:35

Lisa Da Silva 15:12 India Weir 16:29

Katie Mellor 15:50 Chiara Kafero-Roberts 16:57

Siana Jones 17:47

Under 13 Boys. Team 23rd Under 15 Boys. Team 31^st

Abraham Mendes Da Costa 15:01 Archie St Aubyn 13:49

Karim Mahiddine 15:32 Louis Marriott 14:40

Cassius Rathbone 16:05 James Horrex 14:57

London City Runner Metropolitan League - Claybury, Saturday 8th October 2011

Once again the course at Claybury Park was very dry. The grass paths were well marked and the athletes enjoyed the autumnal temperature. The Senior Men’s race had another fine turn-out of 355 and Thames Valley Harriers were well represented by 14 athletes. Always up with the leaders, Mohamud Aadan improved on his 15^th place of last year to win the race by three seconds. Close behind was Naz Darwit having a great run in 22nd. Sean Renfer closed up on him throughout the race to finish 23rd. Making yet another comeback, Andy Fooks again showed good form to finish 77th. With Matt Ponting and Steve Norris close behind it was a shame that the Valley had to wait until 173rd for Phil Wetton and 208^th for Christophe Cayssials to finish. In 214^th place, Richard Bell was a long way in front of Lee Mahon 243, Mike Wilson 249 and Richard Hooley, 253. Lee running cross country for the first time is better known for his 400m, in which he was TVH number 1 this season. Lee started at his 400m pace and was well up after 200m but then found the next 18 400s rather tougher. Also enjoying their runs were veterans Simon Maddison 316 and Tony Smith 338 finishing well in front of the back markers.

The Women’s team has been non-existent over the last couple of years but now with new members joining Lisa Da Silva and Tracey Barlow in the cross country races, the Valley once again has a scoring team. Newcomer Katie Mellor had an encouraging first race to finish in 11^th place just behind Lisa ,10^th. Tracy Barlow finished 29th and Siana Janes, 45^th were the second scoring team in their league. Pascale Witz (Cayssials) had a rare family outing to finish 70 of the 130 runners. This may be the only father, mother, son combination running in these races.

Hugo Cayssials (u17) had a good run to finish 6^th in the U17/15 boys race. Under 15, Toby Clyde was our next home with a very good 18^th place. Close behind him were a group of Valley boys all having good results. Abukar Yahye, u17, 24^th; Joe Gilbert, u15 25^th, Louis Marriott u15 27^th and Joe Cooper u15 28^th. James Horrex battled well to finish 34^th. Next home was Sam Cooper u17 (43^rd) beaten by his younger brother in their first race against each other. Bringing up the rear of the field Danat Haile, u15, finished 51^st. The team finished in 3^rd place out of 16 teams.

In the Under 13 Boy’s race Abraham Mendes Da Costa hung onto the leaders for the first half of the 3000m race but faded to finish 7^th overall. Probably the youngest runner in the race, Nicholas Cowley-Andrea who was only 11 on September 25^th also had a great run to finish 9^th in his first cross country race. Along with other newcomers, Karim Mahaddine, who ran with a twisted ankle for most of the race and still finished 12^th and Cassius Rathbone, 20^th Thames Valley had a good team result. Nebay Haile and Thomas Horrex also did well to finish 25^th and 29^th. Their 2^nd place in the team race was a superb result.

Senior Men: 1, M. Aadan 24:54; 22, N. Dawit 26:23; 23, S. Renfer 26:30; 72, A. Fooks 28:47; 95, M. Ponting 29:35; 106, S. Norris 29:55; 173, P. Wetton 31:55; 208, C. Cayssials 33:05; 214, R. Bell 33:11; 243, L. Mahon 34:11; 249, M. Wilson 34:22; 253, Richard Hooley 34:40; 316, S. Maddison 38:31; 338, T. Smith 41:24. Team 2^nd.

Senior Women: 10, L. Da Silva 22:15; 11, K. Mellor 22:26; 29, Tracy Barlow 24:09; 45, Siana Janes 25:17; 70, P. Witz 26:44. Team 2^nd.

U15/17 Men/Boys: 6, H. Cayssials 14:18; 18, T. Clyde 15:32; 24, A. Yahye 15:52; 25, J. Gilbert 15:55; 27, L. Marriott 15:59; 28, J. Cooper 16:02; 34, J. Horrex 16:25; 43, S. Cooper 17:24; 51, D. Haile 20.02. Team 3^rd.

U13 Boys: 7. A. Mendes Da Costa 11:40; 9, N. Cowley-Andrea 11:47; 12, Karim Mahiddine 12:05; 20, C. Rathbone 12:21; 25. N. Haile 12:49; 29, T. Horrex 13:46. Team 2^nd.

South of England Cross Country Relays - Biggleswade, Saturday 1st October 2011

On the hottest October day ever it was hard to imagine athletes running in cross country races. The grounds of npcomments-->npcomments-->npcomments-->npcomments-->npcomments-->ml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Shuttleworth College looked like a large picnic area as clubs gathered around their banners to sit on the grass and watch their athletes race through parkland and up a demanding hill on every lap. Although there was not huge entries for every race the standard was high and of course most of the teams who were there expected to do well.

Thames Valley Harriers men’s team were the initial winners in last year’s inaugural event. This time they had to relinquish their title due to several men being unavailable. Even so, the Valley put up a brave fight. On the first lap Mohamud Aadan came home first in 15:25 just one second in front of the second runner. Alister Hay then increased the lead to 1 minute with 16:10. On the third lap Sean Renfer held on to the lead but the gap narrowed to 23 seconds. His time was 16:43. Unfortunately, replacement runner John Husbands dropped back to 4^th place with a time of 19:41. Thames Valley just missing out on the medals and Mohamud was the second fastest man overall in the race.

In the Under 15 Boys relay the Valley had two teams competing. The ‘A’ team finished 6^th with Michael Imo doing the club’s best time of 7:15, Archie St Aubyn, 7:21 and Joe Gilbert 7:23. The ‘B’ team finished 10^th with Louis Marriott 7:31, James Horrex 7:51 and Joe Cooper 7:37. The Under 13 Boys team were outclassed and finished 12^th. Abraham Mendes Da Costa was our best runner on the first leg and recorded 7:36. Newcomer Karim Mahiddine ran 8:04 and Tom Horrex did 9:15.

Our only girl’s team were the Under 13s. After her great run in the road relays the previous week, India Weir found some of the girls she was up against to be a year older than her. Even so she ran bravely to come home in 6^th place with 8:17. Sister Kosana dropped back to 8^th with 8:35 but Chiara Kafero-Roberts fought back to 6^th place with 8:37.

Finally in the Men's Under 20 even though Daz Dawit ( 9.31) ran the fastest time of the day and Ali Yahye (10:50) the 5th fastest the Valley didn't complete a team so were deprived of another set of medals.

South of England Mens Masters Road Relays - Aldershot, Sunday, 25^th September 2011 - In the veterans races TVH had 10 runners competing in the over 40s and over 50s races. The M50 team of Lee Benjamin (22:45), JJ Quirke (23:09), Mike Wilson (25:19) and Simon Maddison (29:14) finished 38^th overall and 16^th over 50s team.

The M40 category had 6 TVH runners, Steve Norris (21:31), John Husbands (23:14), Phil Wetton (23:24) and Richard Hooley (25:18) finished 23^rd overall and 16^th over 40s team, and an incomplete second team of Jim Blakemore (24:36) and Christophe Cayssials (23:54).

South of England Womens Road Relays - Aldershot, Saturday, 24^th September 2011 - Thanks to all those who ran yesterday in the SEAA road relays at Aldershot. For the first time (in a good few years) we completed two womens teams, which is a really positive start to the upcoming season. Our A team of Tracey, Diana, Siana and I finished in a fantastic 18th place out of 57 full teams - finishing 6th A team in London. The B team of Mareike, Jess, Andrea and Ana ran solidly to came home in 51st. Big thanks to Ana for coming in at the last minute to complete the B team (which was looking a bit shaky earlier in the week), to Mareike who gave up time from studying to race, to Diana who had a tiring week working overseas, to Jess for bringing along brownies and Phil for providing transport and refreshments! Our results are as follows:

18 Thames Valley Harriers - A Team 1:00:08 Snr

Lisa Da Silva 13:41 13

Tracey Barlow 15:07 16

Diana Kennedy 15:58 22

Siana Jones 15:22 18

51 Thames Valley Harriers - B Team 1:10:34 Snr

Mareike Jarchik 15:36 45

Jess Bass 16:28 41

Andrea Broughton 17:33 44

Ana Da Silva 20:57 51

South of England Young Athletes Road Relays - Aldershot, Saturday, 24^th September 2011 - With several athletes unable to run due to other commitments, Thames Valley Harriers still had some good teams competing in the Southern Road Relays at Aldershot. The best individual performance came from India Weir running the third lap in the Under 13 Girls race. She started in 32^nd position and passed 10 athletes in front of her for the team to in 22^nd place. She was 11^th fastest on her lap and her time of 8:59 was the best ever by a Valley girl. We have been taking part since 1993 in these relays so her performance was very encouraging and she will still be in the under 13 race next year! The first lap saw Rosie Vallance chasing Chiara Kafero-Roberts all the way round the course, getting ahead just before the finish but Chiara outsprinted her to the line where she finished 34 th in 9:20to Rosie’s 9:23, 37^th . Kosana Weir then improved the team position to 32^nd with 9:32 before India’s great run. There were 69 teams finishing the race.

The Under 15 Boys team finished a respectful 20^th out of 37 teams. Joe Gilbert was disappointed with his 11:15, 43^rd position on the first lap and was led home by ‘B’ team runner Robert Vallance, 11:02, 40^th, having his first run for the club. Toby Clyde made up 10 places with a good run of 10:50 and Louis Marriott improve the Valley position to 28^th (11:17) on the third lap. Then Archie St Aubyn anchored the team to gain seven places for 20^th position with 10:48. Second ‘B’ team runner John Gray ran 11:58 in an incomplete team. With no team in the Under 15 Girls relay, Madeline Turner ran on the first lap and finished 39 th with a good time of 12:25.

Middlesex Young Athletes Road Relays and Under 11 Road Race - Hayes, Sunday, 11^th September 2011 - This opening series of races for Thames Valley Harriers young athletes didn’t produce any winners this year. But with Nicholas Cowley-Andrea second in the Under 11 Boys 1500m race and the Under 13 Girls team also finishing second, the Valley were prominent throughout the races.

Also gaining medals were George Goodhart, third in the under 11 Boys race and the U15 Boys team of Louis Marriott, Archie St Aubyn and Joe Cooper also finishing in third place. In the Under 11 Girls Race we had newcomers Annabel Barnard finishing sixth and Clementine Gray, eighth followed home in ninth place by Sarah Goodhart. The Under 13 girls had Kosana Weir running a faster time than her twin sister India, although India suffered from stitch for half of her run. Chiara Kafero-Roberts also had a good run to bring the team home. In the boys Under 13 relay, the TVH team were never in the hunt. Although Benji Arthur ran well on the first lap, he found himself back in fifth place. Rory Jack held that position but lost ground then Abraham Mendes Da Costa ran over half a minute faster than last year, but could not make up any places. The ‘B’ team were just behind them with Edward Wootton, Samuel Barnard who ran faster than the ‘A’ runner and Thomas Horrex.

The Under 15 Boys performed better than expected. Louis ran well but was beaten home by new TVH member Michael Imo. Archie who has contacted asthma during the summer and has not been running, was our fastest boy and Joe’s usual fast start did not pay off this time but he held on for third place. The ‘B’ team also had some good performances from James Horrex, John Gray and Jack Keen. The Under 15 Girls had Madeline Turner finishing second on the first lap and Eve Goodhart taking the lead but Lena Cayssials dropped back to fourth on the last lap. Brother Hugo Cayssials had a good battle with Bharvesh Soneji of Ealing and Southall on the first lap of the U17 Men’s race but lost out by four seconds. Adbukar Yahye ran the second lap but TVH did not a third runner.

U11B: 2, N. Cowley-Andrea 5:30; 3, G. Goodhart 5:32.

U11G: 6, A.Barnard 6:26; 8, C. Gray 6:35; S. Goodhart 6:58

U13B relay: B. Arthur 12:24; R. Jack 12:55; A. Mendes Da Costa 11:23. Team 5^th

E. Wootton 13:09; S. Barnard 12:50; T. Horrex 13:49. Team 6th

U13G relay: K. Weir 12:33; I. Weir 12:50; C. Kafero-Roberts 13:01. Team 2^nd

U15B relay: L. Marriott 11:14; A. St Aubyn 12:50; J. Cooper 11:36. Team 3 rd

J. Horrex 11:33; John Gray 12:07; Jack Keen 12:34. Team 5^th

M. Imo 11:02

British Athletics League Super 8 Cup Final, Saturday 10 September 2011 - Match Report - The British Athletics League Super 8 Cup Final provided another exciting day of athletics for Thames Valley Harriers in their quest to add Cup victory to a very successful season that saw the club promoted from Division 2 to Division 1 in the British Athletics League. The Derby venue was the same one that saw the Valley clinch promotion on 27 August although, along with other clubs, the effect of a long hard season meant that a number of changes to the team were necessary. The weather conditions on the day were difficult as strong winds buffeted the track but the rain largely stayed away. Performances were affected but the level of competition remained high. It proved to be a tight competition throughout the day as the Valley finished in a creditable 3^rd place.

Despite the long season Jason Comissiong set a season’s best of 10.85 in taking 2^nd place in the 100m just 0.01 seconds behind the winner. He then took an unexpected 2^nd place in his less favoured 110m hurdles in a lifetime best of 16.01 with both runs within the legal wind limit. Jehvaun Senior made his debut in the first team in the 200m finishing 4^th despite having to ease back after 50m as he damaged a hip flexor muscle. Fortunately, he was able to accelerate once he hit the straight and was rewarded with a lifetime best of 22.50, albeit with a 3.5m tail-wind. This 18 year-old has great potential in sprinting and he is one to watch for the future.

Another youngster making his debut in the senior team was Daniel Ochole who found the 400m a big step up in a race won by International 400m runner Rob Tobin. However, Daniel will have gained a lot of experience from the race and we expect to see him continue to progress over the winter months. Stalwart, Louis William ran a well-judged 800m to finish in 2:00.77, just failing to catch the 3^rd placed runner in the home straight but finishing strongly.

Rob Russell again showed his class as he first destroyed the field in the 3000m with a well-judged surge of pace 500m from the finish to clock 8:49.71 and then ran the most spirited and determined race in the 1500m. In very strong and blustery conditions Rob hit the front with 400m to go and it was a shoulder to shoulder battle for the last 300m with Max Roberts of Basingstoke. Rob simply refused to give in and was rewarded with a 3 yard victory over fast-finishing Chris Johnson of Crawley in 4:12.57. Ali Mortimore is a great clubman and he stepped in to replace Steve Whyte in the Discus and Jon Harvey in the Javelin, both late withdrawals from the team. His background as a former first class rugby player obviously stood him in good stead as both events were run concurrently and he was faced with a jog between events to take all 4 throws in each. Ali made the best of the situation and gathered valuable points in both throws, reaching 30.23m in the Discus and 38.94m in the Javelin.

Wayne Taylor returned from a hamstring injury that he picked up in the semi-final match on 23 July at Luton and was only just below his season’s best in the high jump as he cleared 1.80m for 4^th place. Meanwhile Nav Childs was a class apart in the Triple Jump as his 14.95m was almost 1.5m ahead of the 2^nd placer and this was another outstanding performance from this ultra-consistent club stalwart. A change in the timetable meant that Nav was unable to jump in the Pole Vault which took place at the same time on the other side of the track and the club had to forfeit points in the Vault.

With the event format limiting athletes to 2 events and with injury to Jehvaun Senior the Medley Relay team became a rallying call for those with team spirit as Wayne Taylor, still recovering from hamstring injury ran a sensible and steady 200m leg, Nav Childs ran the 2^nd 200m and closed the gap significantly on 5^th placed Swansea. Young Daniel Ochale halved the 30m gap on his 400m leg to set Louis William off on the final 400m leg where his experience and pace allowed him to quickly close the remaining gap and sweep past Swansea to finish in 5^th place.

Sadly, it was not enough to close the gap on Exeter, who finished just 2 points clear in 2^nd place in the match or Crawley who ran out winners 9 points clear of the Valley. However, this was a quality performance from the Valley boys and the mix of new athletes and seasoned competitors was good to see and bodes well for next season. The Valley Team Manager, Paul Oppe, was delighted with the performance of the team “It’s been a long hard season and to find athletes reaching season’s best or lifetime best performances at the end of the year is remarkable. It was particularly good to see some of our young athletes come into the first team and perform so well. I am delighted with and very proud of the team’s achievements this year.”

Victoria Park and Middlesex 10k - Sunday 4th September 2011 - The Middlesex 10k road race took place on a humid Sunday morning in Hackney and also doubled as the club 10k championships. 11 TVH athletes plus the Chairman took part in the race with 3 of the women’s team following up track races in the home Southern League fixture the previous day.

As expected Katie Good (1500m pb the day before) was the star on the day, a clear winner in the women’s race, rounding off a fantastic summer. Lisa Da Silva (also 1500m pb the day before) was a very welcome suprise addition to the team, running well for 3^rd overall and 2^nd in the Middlesex champs. Tracy Barlow ran well to beat Siana Jones (3000m pb on Sat) to 3^rd place in our club championships, with Pascale Witz also running well.

In the men’s race Naz Dawit showed he is getting back to fitness with a strong run for 7^th overall and 3^rd Middx. Matthieu Ribault ran another great race, finishing 11^thin a personal best time more than 30 secs faster than last year. Manuel da Silva finished a well deserved 3^rd in the club championships, after aiding and abetting Katie and Lisa in the first half of the race. John and Matt are still working on the right race preparation; John injured himself 2 days before (but had the pleasure of handing out the trophies) and Matt gave the whole field a few minutes head start. Richard Bell ran well to finish 4^th TVH, followed by Christophe starting the road back to fitness and Nick coming back from an injury hit summer.

Results

7^th Naz Dawitt 33-15 (3^rd Middx)

11^th Matthieu Ribault 34-32

17^th Katie Good 36-07 (1^st woman)

29th Lisa da Silva 37-30 (3^rd)

36^th Manuel da Silva 38-37

45^th John Husbands 39-25

63^rd Richard Bell 41-06

72^nd Matt Ponting 42-14

78^th Tracy Barlow 43-05 (10)

82^nd Siana Jones 43-25 (11)

84^th Christophe Cayssials 43-39

89^th Pascale Witz 44-59 (15)

131^st Nick Michael 53-10

161 finished

Women’s overall team 1^st (Katie, Lisa, Tracy)

Men’s Middx team 2^nd (Naz, Matthieu, Manuel)

Men’s Middx Masters 2^nd (John, Richard, Christophe)

27th August 2011 - BAL Division 2, Derby - TVH gain promotion to Divison 1. Finishing third in the last match the team overtook Basingstoke to finish 2nd in the league. Final League position:- 1. Herne Hill Harriers 29 points, 2nd TVH 22 points, 3rd Exeter Harriers 20 pts.

TVH went into the final match of the season in third place in the League behind Herne Hill Harriers and Basingstoke and marginally ahead of Exeter. Things remained extremely close all day but Basingstoke‘s challenge started to fade and they slipped down to last place whilst TVH and Exeter continued to battle throughout the day before the Valley men finally moved away to finish third on the day and earn second place in the final League standings and promotion to Division 1.

TheTrack Man of the match award was presented to Chris Smith for his personal best of 9:25.57 for 2^nd in the 3000m steeplechase behind GB international Luke Gunn. The TVH Field Man of the match award was presented to Steve Whyte for his massive contribution in Hammer (4^th with 53.67m), Discus (3^rd with 42.26m) and Shot (3^rd with 13.86m).

In the 100m Nigel Thomas was suffering from the effects of a long season but ran a creditable 10.86, just failing to win the A event by inches. William De Torvy was also nursing a minor injury and was similarly just inches away from a win in the B event in 11.14. William came back in the 200m to run another sub 22 second performance to snatch second place win the B event in 21.92. Lumar Sylvester ran 22.14 for 4^th place in the A 200m before coming back to run in the 4x100m relay, and then a 50 second split in the 4x400m relay.

The 400m has been the toughest event this season and Lee Mahon’s 50.34 earned him 7^th place, whist Louis William ran 51.99 for 7^th in the B event. Louis has already run a season’s best of 1:57.51 for 7^th in the A 800m and stepped in at the last minute in the 110m hurdles to pick up an extra point. Adding a leg of the 4x400m earned Louis the TVH Clubman of the match award for his overall performance and willingness to help out. Naz Dawitt is still short of fitness after an extended period of injury, finishing 8^th in the B 800m.

Rob Russell ran another impressive 1500m in 3^rd place in a blanket finish in a fine 3:56.32, his best time of the year. Rob came back to run another fine race to win the B 5000m in 14:52.20 behind Neilson Hall in his club debut appearance; Neilson’s time was a creditable 14:38.41 for 3^rd in the A 5000m. Chris Hearn dropped down from his regular 3000m steeplechase to run the B 1500m and ran a battling 4:03.3 for 3^rd place.

Jason Comissiong had another busy afternoon as he ran 16.51 for 7^th in the 110m hurdles, threw 44.31m for 3^rd in the B Javelin and ran a strong leg in the 4x100 relay, having already run a non-scoring 100m. Eddie Betts, who normally lives in Spain was home for the month of August and made a welcome appearance in the A 400m hurdles, where he is the world’s leading over 40 athlete. Eddie ran 56.80 for 7^th. Jon Mann made the long trip down from Scotland to run close to his personal best time with 57.55 for 4^th in the B race.

As previously mentioned Chris Smith ran a determined 9:25.57 for 2^nd in the A 3000m Steeplechase and Andy Hennessy ran a well-judged race to secure 1^st place in the B race in 9:51.54 for his fastest time of the year. Steve Whyte was ably supported by Dave Burrell in the B Hammer (3^rd with 40.64m), Discus (3^rd with 33.90m) and Shot (3^rd with 11.55m). Both these athletes have done sterling work all season and their contribution was enormous. Jon Harvey has been improving all season and found an additional 2m on his last throw to snatch 2^nd place in the A Javelin with a season’s best of 53.57m. Jon’s contribution was especially notable as he was married a week ago and decided to take a short honeymoon in the Lake District to be able to make it to this final promotion-chasing match.

Nav Child’s was again dominant in his favoured event, the Triple Jump, where he soared out to 14.87m to win by 60cm. Nav had already competed in the B Pole Vault where he cleared 2.60m and was very close to 3.00m on each of his three attempts. Not satisfied with just 2 events Nav stepped up at the last minute to run a solid leg in the 4x400. The A Pole Vault was won by the evergreen Greg Conlon who reached a season’s best of 4.40m in a very close match where the result was decided on countback. Adrian Assinor was 3^rd in the B Triple Jump with 13.09m but suffered a hamstring injury after 4 rounds . Adrian is one of our very promising young athletes who has a great future and we hope he makes a rapid recovery from his injury.

The Long Jump was a nervous affair as Ogo Anochirionye had 2 no-jumps but reached 6.68m in the crucial 3^rd round to eventually finish 2^nd – just 2cm behind the winner. Kerry Mathurin had one no-jump before getting in a “safe” 6.04m and finished 5^th in the B event. Ogo and Kerry then moved on to the High Jump where Ogo jumped 1.75m for 6^th in the A event and Kerry jumped 1.65 for 7^th in the B event.

By the time the relays came on the Valley managers were quietly confident that promotion was assured and the 4x100m proved to be another demonstration from the Valley men as Jason Comissiong, Lumar Sylvester, William De Torvy, and Nigel Thomas ran 41.70 to finish more than a full second clear of Trafford in second place. With just the 4x400m relay to go the Exeter team manager sportingly offered his congratulations to Valley Team Manager Paul Oppe as the final positions were already decided.

The 4x400m team of Louis William, Nav Childs, Lee Mahon, and Lumar Sylvester came home safely in 7^th place to seal the promotion drive. The team performance on the day was typical of the club spirit shown by the Valley men all season. Everyone gave 100% and there were always athletes willing to cover unfamiliar events to make sure that every point was earned.

It was an emotional Paul Oppe who congratulated the team members at the end of the meeting and made the man of the match presentations. “It is only when you experience the release of emotions at the end of such a tough season that you realise how important this promotion is to the team managers and athletes. I can’t tell you how impressed I was with the performance of every single athlete today – I am proud to be Manager to such a talented and committed team. We are already making plans for 2012.”

27th August 2011 - World Championships, Daegu. - TVH member Ambwene Simukonda runs 400m for Malawi at 12.05 pm recording 54.81 an new Malawi national record.

20th/21st August 2011 - UK U17 Championships - Bedford - A fine run by Victor Dos Santos Soares saw the young TVH athlete finish 4th in the 400m with a time of 49.39 secs. Rochelle Munroe-Graham, the Club's other finalist finished 6th in the 200m in 25.70 secs, having recorded 25.50 in the heats.

20th August 2011 -Women's Southern League Premier Division at Abingdon - With a number of U15s away on holiday a smaller team, mainly of senior athletes did well to finish 3rd, consolidating the Valley's position in the league in which we finished 10th overall. The full match results here.

With a number of U15s away on holiday a smaller team, mainly of senior athletes did well to finish 3rd, consolidating the Valley's position in the league in which we finished 10th overall. Angie Broadbent, winning the 200m (24.8) and 100H (13.6). A welcome return to competition for Hayley- Jayne Cone was rewarded with a vctory in the 'B ' string 100m (12.7) while Cleopatra Moulon continued her fine form with the 'B' string victory in the 200m (26.9). Rebekah Wiltshire won the 400H (68.6) and 'B' string Long Jump (5.38). In the field Angela Barrett also won 2 'A' strings in the Triple Jump ( 12.81m) and Long Jump (5.70m). Beth Staniland threw well in the Discuss winning with 35.35m and 2nd in the Shot with 10.81, supported by Ashleigh Stephenson 2nd 'B' String Shot (7.21) and 4th 'A' string Hammer (32.68). Lucy Knott was narrowly edged into 2nd, by 20cm, in the Javelin (31.21).

In the U15 age group Deschanell Ajiboluwa 2nd in the 'A' 100m (13.4) and winner of the 'B' 75H (13.1) was well supported by Jessica Myers-Smith, 2nd 'B' 100 & 200m (14.3 & 30.5sec) and Hannah Wiltshire 2nd 'A' 75H (12.6), Long Jump (4.50) and High Jump. Marissa John also had a busy afternoon competing in Shot and 200m as did Chiara Kafero- Roberts in Shot, and 1500m

13 August 2011 - British Athletics league at Abingdon - TVH finish the day in 3rd place in the League. We now know that we can gain promotion to Division 1 if we beat Basingstoke in the last match. The highlight of the match was Nigel Thomas's victory in the 100m in 10.47. This set a new league record and earned him the BAL man of the match award. The full match report here.

Following a win in the previous match and a subsequent win at the Cup Semi-Final Thames Valley Harriers’ 5^th place in the third League match at Abingdon may look disappointing at first sight. However, in a week filled with sudden injuries the team was seriously weakened and in fact could have finished 3^rd with just an additional 11 points. With some strict officiating on the day resulting in disqualification in 2 events this would have made up that difference. After three matches the Valley are now in third place and, with one match to go, everything is still to play for. Whilst Herne Hill Harriers look certain to win the League the vital second place spot would mean promotion to Division 1 and Basingstoke are only 1 League point ahead with ml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Exeter on the same points as the Valley but with fewer match points. In a nut-shell this means that the Valley need to beat Basingstoke and Exeter in the final match to be held in Derby on 27 August to gain promotion.

There were some great individual performances including a new League record for the reigning British Universities Champion, Nigel Thomas, who ran 10.47 to shave one hundredth of a second from club mate Toby Sandeman’s previous League record. This earned Nigel the overall meeting track performance of the day award. William De Torvy ran his fastest ever 100m to win the B 100m in 10.64 and ran another lifetime best 200m of 21.69 to win the B 200m before overcoming a niggling hamstring problem to run a great leg of the 4x100m to help Nigel Thomas, Jason Comissiong and Lumar Sylvester to another fine win in 41.71. Lumar Sylvester had earlier run his third fastest 200m of the year to gain 2^nd in the A race in 21.52.

Ogo Anochinyre also hit a new lifetime best in the Triple Jump to win the B event in 13.07m, having earlier jumped 6.61m for 2^nd place in the B Long Jump, and picked up valuable points in the High Jump.

Lee Mahon and Lloyd King both put in solid performances in the 400m, running 50.29 and 50.36 for 7^th and 5^th places respectively.

With the unfortunate loss of Myles Edwards due to injury, Louis William stepped up to the A 800m race and ran well in a tactical race to finish 6^th in 1:58.2, whilst Naz Dawit made a welcome return from injury to run 2:00.54 in the B race. With Myles and fellow middle distance man Neilson Hall injured Rob Russell and Chris Hearn doubled up in the 1500m to earn useful points. Rob finished 5^th in the A event in 4:01.35 and Chris ran 4:20.73 in the B event. Rob was 3^rd in his more favoured 3000m event in 8:32.83 behind international standard competition and Sean Renfer ran 9:00.59 for 4^th in the B event.

Jason Comissiong had another busy day in a range of events, including 16.2 for 6^th in the 100m hurdles (his fastest time ever), 45.52m for 3^rd in the B Javelin, 1.70m for 7^th in the A High Jump, 10.70 in the non-scoring 100m and a leg of the winning 4x100m relay. No a bad day’s work for this highly talented and committed athlete.

The 400m hurdles saw a welcome return to the team of Eddie Betts who now lives in Spain but returned to make an appearance at this match and is also committed to the final match in Derby. As a former 50.49 second man Eddie is currently the world’s leading hurdler for his age and although disappointed with his time of 56.01 this is still faster than any other athlete in the world over the age of 40 this year.

Chris Hearn put in his best performance for the club and his fastest time since 2007 in finishing 5^th in the A event in 9:49.76, whilst Andy Hennessy continued his return to form by finishing 2^nd in the B event in 9:55.06. Chris had earlier suffered disqualification in the B 400m hurdles for not being completely still in the set position – an understandable problem for someone covering an unfamiliar event where a simple warning would have been more appropriate.

The 4x400m provided an opportunity for 16 year old England Schools bronze medallist Victor Dos Santos Soares to make his debut in the senior team and was not overawed by the occasion running close to 50 seconds on his leg. Sadly, the team, which included Lee Mahon, Lloyd King and Louis William, suffered disqualification for a changeover fault.

On a day that saw all throwers struggling to achieve their best performances Steve Whyte and Alistair Mortimore again accumulated valuable points with Steve finishing 4^th in the Hammer with 50.64m, 5^th in the Discus with 41.41m, and 3^rd in the Shot with 13.74. Alistair took 5^th in the B Hammer with 36.83m, 4^th in the B Discus with 33.91m and 6^th in the B Shot with 10.64m. Jon Harvey was again over 50m in the A Javelin as his 50.53m gained him 4^th place.

Nav Childs was another busy man in the jumps as he opened with 2.60m in the Pole Vault, in which he is a novice, to gain 3^rd place in the B event, whilst in the A event club stalwart Greg Conlon made a creditable 4.20m before narrowly missing 4.40m, which was the winning height. Nav then went on to take 4^th place in the A Long Jump with a fine 6.79m before finishing 3^rd in the A Triple Jump with another great jump of 14.79m.

The TVH Track Man of the Match award was presented to William De Torvy for his twin best performances in the 100m and 200m events. As previously mentioned

Nigel Thomas had already received the overall meeting award for his League record on 10.47 in the 100m.

The TVH Field Man of the Match award was presented to Ogo Anochinyre for his lifetime best Triple Jump and supporting Long Jump and High Jump performances.

The TVH Clubman of the Match award was presented to Chris Hearn for his Steeplechase run and willingness to cover additional events for points for the club.

Team Manager, Paul Oppe, was obviously disappointed that the Valley team had not made certain of promotion in this match but was upbeat about the final match in 2 weeks time. “It’s crystal clear what we have to do in Derby – we need to beat Basingstoke and Exeter and we’ve managed that already this year. It will be an all-out effort from everyone and I am confident in the abilities of our team to do the business on the day”

6 August 2011 - UK Women's Athletics League - the TVH team narrowly missed promotion in an exciting match at Winchester. Congratulations to John Smith and the team on a successful season.

The senior women had their third and final match of the summer at ml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Winchester on Saturday 6th August, narrowly missing promotion to the Premier Division. Going into the match we were equal first with Blackheath and Bromley and one league point ahead of Swansea, having won the second match convincingly.

In an exciting match Swansea gradually pulled ahead of Thames Valley with the final result:

1st Blackheath and Bromley 204 points

2nd Swansea 185 points

3rd Thames Valley Harriers 168 points

This meant that Blackheath and Bromley were promoted, Swansea and Thames Valley Harriers came equal second over the three matches and resort therefore had to be had to events points. This resulted in Swansea getting promotion by the narrow margin of ten points.

Despite being below full strength the team made a huge effort covering all the events apart from the B string Pole Vault. There were fine performances from Phyllis Agbo who won the Long Jump with 6.24m and was second in the shot with13.24m and Katie Good who ran a personal best of 2 min 15.60 secs winning the B string 800m and then took ten seconds off her personal best for the 3000m in a time of 9 min 43.07 secs coming 2nd. Amber Simukonda who will be representing Malawi at the World Championships and the Pan African Championships won the 400m in a time of 54.50 secs and came 2nd in the 200m in 24.89 secs.

All in all we had a very successful first season in Division 1 with a number of new faces in the team and a much larger and stronger squad than in previous years. Next year we will be joined in Div 1 by Trafford and Cardiff relegated from the Premier Division, and Wigan and Glasgow promoted from Div 2. The other survivors in Div 1 are Newham, Shaftesbury Barnet and Southampton.

Report here.

Elmbridge 10km Road Race 24 July 2011

Ten TVH runners travelled to Elmbridge for the 9am start on a sunny warm Sunday morning. Rob Russell was running his 3rd race of the weekend (following his 1500m / 3000m double at Luton) and hit the front straight away with only team mate Chris Smith for company. Chris dropped back after 4km with Rob completing a comfortable win in 30-55 with Chris second in 31-43, well clear of 3rd place. The other TVH men fared less well, with the high pollution levels making it tough going for many runners including Sean Renfer who dropped out and John Husbands who struggled in the latter stages. Manuel da Silva gamely decided to run with a metal plate and pins still in his shoulder and led John until halfway before not suprisingly dropping back, finishing just ahead of Mareike Jackscik in her first race for TVH. Mareike was followed home by Siana Jones, just ahead of Jessica Bass, with Holly Eagan completing the team for a 4th place finish out of 20 teams and Andrea Broughton competing in her first race since the Edinburgh marathon in May. Thanks to Phil Wetton for support and photos.

Results:

    1      ROB RUSSELL                    30:55
    2      CHRIS SMITH                      31:43
79      JOHN HUSBANDS               39:17
141      MANUEL DA SILVA              42:01
150      MAREIKE JACKSCIK           42:19     (16th Female)
206      SIANA JONES                      44:40     (30th)
209      JESSICA BASS                    44:47     (32nd)
267      HOLLY EAGAN                    46:44     (50th)
309      ANDREA BROUGHTON      48:21     (65th)
4th Ladies team,          616 finished.

BAL Super 8 Cup Semi-Final Luton 23 July 2011 report by Peter Browne

Following the tremendous win at the League match on 2 July Paul Oppe’s team of Valley men ran out comfortable winner in this 1 man per event Cup Semi-Final at Luton. With only the winners guaranteed to qualify for the final on 10^th Sept every point counted and it proved to be another very successful day as the Valley men won 6 of the 13 events and no-one finishing lower than 4^th. However, the finale was a nail-biting affair as you can see from the following report. The outstanding individual performance came from Nav Childs who jumped a lifetime best performance of 15.39m in winning the Triple Jump by almost 2.5 metres, and he has now booked his place in next weekend’s British Trials for the World Championships. Nav also came back later to jump 2.60m in the Pole Vault as our leading Pole Vaulter was unavailable.

Jon Harvey finished 3^rd in the Javelin with 49.71m and Ali Mortimore also finished 3^rd in the Discus with 33.33m. Both throwers were a little down on their season’s best performances in the cool and blustery conditions. Wayne Taylor made the long trip down from Hull and matched his season’s best of 1.80m for 4^th place in the High Jump.

On the track Jason Commissiong won the 100m in 11.2 seconds by the closest of margins having lost and retaken the lead in the last 20m. Jason also ran the 110m hurdles and finished 3^rd in 17.4 seconds having recovered well from a near-fall at the second hurdle. Lumar Sylvester cruised to a comfortable 22.4 second win in the 200m on a day when the weather was not conducive to fast times. Lee Mahon finished 3^rd in the 400m running 50.2 seconds, doggedly holding off the fast finishing Stevenage runner. Louis William ran a sensible and controlled race in the 800m, coming back strongly in the last 150m to finish 3^rd in 1:58.3, just 0.8 seconds behind the winner.

Rob Russell made the long trek down from Aberdeen and shone in the 3000m and 1500m, winning both events. The 3000m was a demonstration of gutsy front-running as he proved too strong for the opposition and showed a masterly command of tactics in the 1500m by following the fast early pace before pouncing decisively with 500m to go and simply running away from the field. Rob’s winning times were 8:39.8 and 4:02.5 respectively.

The final event of the day was the medley relay, consisting of 2x200m legs and 2x400m legs. With a lead of 4 points over Stevenage going into the relay the position looked comfortable but disaster struck on the second leg. Lumar Sylvester had run a superb first 200m and handed over a comfortable lead to Wayne Taylor who maintained that lead for 120m before his left hamstring tore. He didn’t panic and somehow managed to limp the last 80m to hand over to Louis William just about level with leaders, Woking. Louis ran a determined leg and fought back in the last few metres to give Lee Mahon every chance on the last leg. Lee stepped up to the mark and held a narrow lead coming into the final straight, simply refusing to give way. He crossed the line in first place by just 0.1 seconds to finish the day on the highest of notes. The eventual Match winning margin looks a comfortable 11 points but first place could easily have been lost without Wayne Taylor’s determination and presence of mind and the great performance of Lumar, Louis, and Lee.

UK Women's League National Div 1 - Copthall 3rd July 2011

The TVH senior women's team improved from the 3rd place finish at Swansea to win a closely fought match 2 from Blackheath & Bromley and Shaftersbury Barnet and now stand second in the division on 14 league points, the same as leaders Blackheath & Bromley and separated only by a handful of total match points.

The team were boosted by the return of Phyllis Agbo recovering from two operations and Angie Broadbelt who had been training in the States. Phyllis confirmed her combined events credentials by coming 2nd in the long jump with 5.99 metres, third in the shot with 12.99 metres and running her first 100 metres for many years coming third in the B string race with a time of 12.32 secs. Angie ran a fast 100 metres hurdles winning in 13.26 secs and then anchored the 4 x 400 metres team to win in a time of 3 mins 48.17 secs breaking the club record.

The distance runners again ran well with Katie Good running a personal best of 9 mins 52.21 secs in winning the 3000 metres with Lisa da Silva winning the B string. Katie also competed in the 800m and 1500m and ran personal best times in all three events. 17 year old Carla Letheby who the previous afternoon had come 4th in the senior girls discus in the English Schools Championship in Gateshead reached the final pool in the discus, hammer and javelin. The commitment of the team was emphasised by Amber Simukonda, coming 4th in the 400 metres hurdles, 2nd in the 400 metres and then running a personal best of 24.80 secs in the 200 metres. Jo Mobed finished a close 2nd in her first 2000m steeplechase after a couple of coaching sessions the previous week under the expert (!) tutelage of Manuel da Silva. All in all a very good day for the club. The team now head to Winchester on 6th August confident of securing promotion to the Premier Division.

UK Women's League National Div 1 - Copthall 3rd July 2011

British Athletics League National Div 2 - Leigh 2nd July 2011

Following a slightly disappointing start in Match 1 on 4 June everything came together in Match 2 in Wigan as Thames Valley Harriers’ men powered through to win and move up from 5^th to 2^nd place in the league table. After leading for the first 6 events the Valley boys slipped down to 3^rd place at halfway before producing a series of great results to move up to second with 2 events to go. The last 2 events were the 4x100m and 4x400m relays and with the sprint team winning their event the club moved back into top spot which they held in a nail-biting 4x400m finish. With 2 teams gaining promotion to Division 1 the Valley team are strongly placed for the last 2 matches and Team Manager, Paul Oppe, has his sights firmly fixed on winning the Divisional Title. This was another long trip and Team Manager , Paul Oppe, decided to travel up early and stay overnight on Friday and Saturday to ensure that everyone was well rested and prepared for the match. There were a few key additions to the team since Match 1 and they made a significant contribution. However, make no mistake this was a real team effort with everyone’s individual contribution being critical in the incredibly tight result.

There were an unprecedented number of personal best performances from Lumar Sylvester 21.39 200m, Lee Mahon 49.19 400m, Aaron Mason 55.94 400m hurdles, Jon Mann 57.24 400m hurdles, Myles Edwards 1:53.07 800m and 3:56.64 1500m, Jason Comissiong 16.56 110m hurdles, and Kerry Mathurin equalled his best high Jump with 1.70m.

The TVH Track Man of the Match award was again a closely contested affair with strong claims from all those mentioned above but British Universities Champion, Nigel Thomas won out for his 10.73 winning 100m and a great leg of the winning 4x100m team, having already won the non-scoring 100m in 10.57 with a legal wind.

The TVH Field Man of the Match award was clearer cut. Although Steve Whyte (54.86m Hammer, 42.48m Discus and a winning 14.96m Shot) and Nav Childs (14.62m Triple Jump and 2.60m Pole Vault) each had a great day it was Joe Steele on his British League debut who won the award for his winning 7.33m Long Jump. Joe has been with the club for over a year now but has suffered serious injury for most of this period and is only now starting to compete this season. His jump was only 27cm short of his lifetime best and everyone is very excited about his prospect for the rest of the season.

The TVH Clubman of the Match award also had a number of contenders, including throwers Steve Whyte and Dave Burrell (Hammer, Discus and Shot), Jason Comissiong(110m hurdles, Javelin and relay), Rob Russell (1500m and 3000m), and Myles Edwards (800m and 1500m personal bests) but it was Lumar Sylvester who put the problems of match 1 behind him and produced a lifetime best to win the 200m and run a fantastic leg in the winning 4x100m relay to receive the award.

Nigel Thomas looked very impressive as he won the 100m A with 2 metres to spare in 10.73 and William De Torvy backed this up with an equally comfortable win in the 100m B in 10.87. The 200m was another demonstration of the club’s sprinting strength as Lumar Sylvester’s 21.39 personal best gave him a 7 metre victory and William De Torvy again won the B event comfortably in a season’s best of 22.01 despite a strong headwind of 2.2m/second. The 400m was again one of the strongest events in depth; Lloyd King ran close to his best time with 49.44 for 7^th place in the A event and Lee Mahon made his British League debut running a personal best time of 49.19 in the B event for a surprise second place. The 800m saw the welcome return of Myles Edwards and the young Scot made the most of the opportunity. Having led for most of the race he drifted back through the field after 600m only to produce a blistering last 100m to run down the entire field and just fail to catch the leader on the line. He was rewarded by a personal best time of 1:53.07, the same time as the winner, taking over 2 seconds from his previous best in the process. Myles came back later in the 1500m B event and, despite claiming to feel understandably jaded, produced another second place in another personal best performance of 3:56.64. There is still a great deal to come from Myles and we all look forward to seeing his total racing commitment delivering further improvements in his times.

Louis William looked much sharper in the 800m B event and, despite losing ground over the last 50m managed to run his best time for 2 years with 1:57.62. Rob Russell produced his best 1500m time for 7 years to finish in 3:54.41 for fine 3^rd in the A event and with less than 20 minutes recovery ran a very creditable 8:31.89 for 4^th place in the 3000m A event. In the 3000m B event Sean Renfer, a recent convert from triathlon, ran close to his best time and finished 5^th in 9:00.24. Aaron Mason trimmed his personal best time in the A 400m hurdles with 55.94 for 6^th place and Jonathan Mann really pulled everything together to run a strong race throughout in the B event and was rewarded with a personal best time of 57.24 to snatch 2^nd place. Both men look ready to make further improvements in this tough and technical event.

Andy Hennessy made his season’s debut in the 3000m steeplechase, and, despite lacking background fitness, was a creditable 5^th in the A event in 10:03.06. Watch out for a big improvement by the time the next match comes in 6 weeks time. Andy was backed up by Chris Hearn who picked off people throughout the race to claim valuable points in 3^rd place in the B event in 10:15.69. Steve Whyte finished his preparation for the World Masters Championships in Sacramento with good performances in the Hammer (54.86m for 2^nd place), Discus (42.48 for 4^th place), and, best of all, Shot (14.96m for 1^st place). Steve was again backed up by Dave Burrell in the B events; his Hammer of 41.14m earned 2^nd place, Discus of 34.68m gained 4^th place, and Shot of 11.95m gained 3^rd place. Steve and Dave earned 64 points between them over the afternoon, which helped enormously in our final result. Jon Harvey again finished 3^rd in the A Javelin but improved by over 1.5m since Match 1 and Jason Commisiong also finished 3^rd in the B event in 46.22m. Jon had already cleared a height for points in the Pole Vault when covering for our specialist vaulters who were unavailable for this match. In the Long Jump Kerry Mathurin also improved on his Match 1 performance with 6.46m for 2^nd place in the B event behind Joe Steele’s winning leap in the A event of 7.33m which saw him win by over 30cm, and this was despite only taking 3 jumps as a precaution to protect his recovering injury. Nav Childs produced another consistent jump of 14.61m to finish 2^nd in the A Triple Jump, having also already earned valuable points in the Pole Vault. Adrian Assinor stepped up to the senior ranks to claim a win in the B Triple Jump with 13.21m and he is another of the crop of youngsters of whom we have great expectations. Wayne Taylor made his season’s debut in the High Jump and cleared a solid 1.80m for 6^th place in the A event and Kerry Mathurin cleared 1.70m in the B event, using a very basic technique. Kerry’s potential in this event is obvious and, with a little technique work he will be making great improvements.

The 4x100m team of Jason Commisiong, Lumar Sylvester, William De Torvey and Nigel Thomas again produced a dominant performance to win the penultimate event by 3 clear metres in a season’s best time of 41.76. This left the final event, the 4x400m, as the decider. Going into the race the Valley were leading by 6 points from Basingstoke and 11.5 points from Herne Hill Harriers. The team of Louis William, Aaron Mason, Lee Mahon, and Lloyd King were up to the task and they held 4^th place throughout despite great pressure. The final scores were announced to roars of joy from the Valley team members, managers and supporters who had not seen a team victory in the British Athletics League since the glory years back in the nineties. Team Manager, Paul Oppe, was literally speechless as he had shouted himself hoarse throughout the afternoon. When he recovered his voice he said “That is the best team result for the club for many years and it was down to a massive effort on the part of each and every athlete and member of the support team. We still have a number of key athletes to bring into the team and I am confident that we can win again in Abingdon. We are not focussed on just gaining promotion this year we are going all out for the title – bring it on!”

McCain Young Athletes League Southern NW Div 1 Watford 19th June 2011

With Chiltern the runaway winners on the day, TVH finished a tantalising one point behind Kingston Poly in the battle for second place. Edward Wootton, Hannah Wiltshire, India Weir, Brittany Robinson, Rue-Ann Paisley, Jordan Connell, Khalil Henriques, Hugo Cayssials, Rochelle Munroe-Graham and Sam Smith were all winners on the track. India and Hugo were particularly impressive in the middle distances; India has improved in each of her U13 800m races this season improving by 13 secs to 2:39.5. Hugo followed up a 2:07.8 pb in the 800m with a well judged win in the 1500m.

In the field there were wins for Kyle Kenrick, Ashleigh Stephenson, Ngaio Jones-Henry, Lia Stephenson, David Jerzykowski, Edward Wootton, Lucy Knott and Ellie Mobed improving by one metre in the shot in 3 competitions to finish 3cm ahead of Marissa John.

South of England Championships, Ashford 18th - 19th June 2011

Annie Tagoe was the only TVH winner at a windswept Ashford, with the sprinters having to deal with strong headwinds. As well as winning the U20 100m, Annie also posted the fastest 200m time of the day in the semi-final. In the senior women's events Phyllis Agbo finished 2nd in the long jump, Katie Good finished 2nd in the 3000m and Katie Cundall was 4th in the 200m.

Nigel Thomas did well to break 11 seconds in to a 4 m/s headwind finishing 3rd with William de Torvy in 5th. Lumar Sylvester was 5th in a close 200m final and Ogo Anochirionye finished 2nd in the long jump with a final round leap of 6.75m.

UK Women's League National Div 1 - Swansea 5th June 2011

Thames Valley Harriers Senior Women’s team opened their season at Swansea on Sunday 5th June in Division 1of the National League with a fine performance coming 3rd .The match was won by the home team Swansea with Blackheath and Bromley (relegated from the Premiership at the end of last summer) 2nd .

There was an outstanding debut from Katie Good running in her only second race on the track. She battled with ex International Andrea Whitcombe over 3000m coming 2nd to her in a time of 9 mins 53.52 secs. The other Katie (Katie Cundall) also made a fine debut coming 3rd in the 100m in a time of 12.19 secs and 2nd in the B String 200m in a time of 25.01 secs. Amber Simukonda performed heroically running the 400m hurdles followed by the B string 100m and then her main event the 400m when she came 2nd in 55.06 secs. She then ran both relays. Annie Tagoe came 2nd in the 200m with a time of 24. 86 secs and then anchored the 4 x 100m relay to a win in a new club record time of 47.83 secs. Competing as a Higher Competition athlete 17 year old Carla Letheby of Walton gained valuable points in the hammer, discus and javelin.

British Athletics League National Div 2 - Exeter 4th June 2011

It was a strong team that Thames Valley Harriers took to Exeter for the first British league Match of the season and hopes were high for a top three finish. Sadly train disruptions, and other travel problem meant that the Valley had a solid start and finished 5th. Most of the Valley team were delayed by about 45 minutes which meant that athletes in the first 3 events had little time to warm-up, and Steve Whyte who travelled separately missed the Hammer, which he was favourite to win. The effect of mishaps and bad luck during the day combined to the difference between 5^th place and our predicted 3^rd place. However, team manager Paul Oppe was greatly encouraged by individual performances and the impact of new members. He remained upbeat and optimistic for the rest for the season. “We had gaps in middle distance events today that we can resolve for match 2 and suffered more than our share of bad luck today. We haven’t given up hope of promotion yet and the guys are really up for our next match in Wigan in a month’s time”.

The TVH Track Man of the Match award was a closely contested affair with strong claims for British Universities Champion, Nigel Thomas who ran an impressive 10.84 to win the A 100m into a strong (2.7mps) wind) and Lloyd King who ran a lifetime best 400m of 49.25 in blustery conditions. However, it was club stalwart Rob Russell who claimed the award with a very strong 14:34.15 to win the 5000m having already run 1:58.55 for 4^th in the B 800m.

The TVH Field Man of the Match award was a clearer cut affair. Although Steve Whyte (14.19m Shot) and Greg Conlon (4.20m Pole Vault) made impressive starts to their British League season it was Nav Childs who made a dramatic return to form following a whole season plagued with injury in 2010. Nav finished 2^nd on the Triple Jump with a fine 14.89m, which is his best for two years. The TVH Clubman of the Match award also had a number of contenders, including Tim Anderson, who was 4^th in the B Pole Vault, 4^th in the B 110m hurdles, and 6^th in the High Jump), Louis William for his respectable 51.20 in the B 400m covering for injury having already completed the 800m, Steve Norris who managed a tough steeplechase and 5000m double, and Chris Hearn who doubled up in the steeplechase and 1500m. The award ultimately went to Jason Comissiong who ran a great leg in the match 4x100m and was quite impressive in the A 110m hurdles running 16.96 for 5^th place and also covered the B Javelin in which he excelled with 46.18m to snatch 3^rd place.

William De Torvy was just edged out in the B 100m in 11.04 and was close to his season’s best in the 200m with 22.28. It was not Lumar Sylvester’s day as he suffered a very rare false start in the A 200m having been favourite to win the event but he came back to run a great 4x100m leg before suffering further misfortune in the 4x400m when the baton was knocked from his hand on the first leg. Sean Renfer and Chris Hearn finished in close order in the 1500m with Sean running 4:12.9 for 8^th in the A event and Chris 4:13.55 for 5^th in the B event. Sean is coming to athletics from a triathlon background and we expect big improvements from him over the coming season. Chris Hearn (5^th A string in 10:03.86) and Steve Norris (4^th in the B string in 10:31.58) both ran gutsy races in the steeplechase and can look forward to improvements later in the season. Steve Norris came back later and toughed it out in the B 5000m for the extra points for the club.

Aaron Mason was close to his best time in the A 400m hurdles with 56.24 for 5^th place and Jonathan Mann made his debut in the match finishing a solid 4^th in the B 400m in 59.33. Dave Burrell is another new addition to the team and made a great contribution in the A string Hammer (5^th in 42.44m), B string Discus (3^rd 35.06m) and B string Shot (3^rd with 11.24m). Dave overcame a stressful week of family illness and, with Steve Whyte should score very heavily for the Valley over the next 3 matches. Jon Harvey finished 3^rd in the A Javelin with 50.84, despite having missed specific throwing technique session recently and we can look to steady progress over the summer. In the Long Jump Ogo Anochirionye and Kerry Mathurin suffered from the late arrival and were below their best performances. However, Ogo still finished 5^th with 6.57m in the A event and Kerry finished 4^th in the B event with 6.33m. Ogo later double up in the Triple Jump and claimed 3^rd place in the B event with 12.81m, whilst Kerry double up in the High Jump to finish 4^th with 1.60m.

The 4x100m team of Jason Commisiong, Lumar Sylvester, William De Torvey and Nigel Thomas produced a dominant performance to win the penultimate event by 6 clear metres in 42.12. Sadly the 4x400m team suffered double tragedy as Lumar Sylvester had the baton knocked from his hand on leg 1 and by the time he had recovered and jogged home we were a long way down in 8^th place. We then suffered a disqualification for a baton change by Rahim Wahedi and although he, Shane Christie and Lloyd King ran strongly it proved in vain.

Middlesex Track & Field Championships Mile End 14th - 15th May 2011

Although not providing a TVH winner, there were seasons best performances in the senior mens 100m semi finals for Nigel Thomas, William de Torvy and Lumar Sylvester who finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th in a windy final. Lumar, appearing in his first races since returning from warm weather training was a comfortable winner in his main event the 200m. Victor dos Santos improved his 400m pb again in winning the U17 400m in 50.27sec and followed this with 3rd in the 200m. David Jerzykowski finished 2nd in a good quality U17 javelin competition with a pb of 45.24m and Edward Wooton was a winner in the U13 high jump.

Amber Simukonda finished 2nd in the womens 400m in another good time of 55.31sec, Gerlinde Hahn won the long jump and Elisha Dee and Bethany Staniland were first and second in the discus. Rebekah Wiltshire won the U20 long jump with sister Hannah a winner in the U15 75m hurdles. Rue-Ann Paisley was second in the U15 200m and Lucy Knott was close to her pb in winning the U17 javelin.

McCain Young Athletes League Southern NW Div 1 High Wycombe 8^th May 2011

The first fixture of the summer took place at High Wycombe. There were many good performances from TVH athletes at the opening fixture of the summer.

In the U13 Girls competition Brittany Robinson performed the sprint double, winning the 75m and 150m races. Chiara Kafero-Roberts was a clear winner in the 1200m, Lena Cayssials won both the high jump and a close race in the 70m hurdles, Francesca Parshall won the shot and Lena and Chiara finished second and third in the long jump.

Marissa John finished second In the U15 Girls 100m and third in the 200m, Hannah Wiltshire won the 75m hurdles and finished second in both the high jump and long jump and Ellie Mobed was second in the 800m.

Ashleigh Stephenson won the high jump in the u17 competition with Lia Stephenson second in the long jump.

In the Boys 1500m events Abraham Medes da Costa won the U13 race and Archie St Aubyn won the U15 race, Tommy Gould was second in U15 400m, Mahad Awes won the U15 high jump and Jack Keen was second in the javelin.

Victor dos Santos Soares won the U17 200m and 400m, with Kaylen Stuart second in the 100m. In the field events Omari Isles-Thomas was second in the long jump, Kyle Kenrick was second in the hammer and David Jerzykowski was a clear winner in the javelin

Track & Field 23rd April 2011 - 2nd May 2011

Men - Kinnaird Trophy, Kingston 23rd April

A small TVH team finished 4th of 8 teams. Notable performances included Nigel Thomas second in the A 100m, William de Torvy first in the B 100M, Lloyd King third in the 400m, Louis William second in the 800m and Sean Renfer third in the 1500m.

Women - Southern League Premier Division, Hemel Hempstead 30th April

A disappointing 4th place in a close opening fixture included victories for the 4 x 100m relay team, Rebekah Wiltshire in the 400m hurdles and a double for Beth Staniland in the shot putt and discus. The U15 competition saw some good sprint performances as Rue-Anne Paisley won the A string 100m and 200m, with Deschanelle Ajiboluwa winning the B string 100m, Marissa John winning the B string 200m and the team then winning the 4x100m relay.

National Junior League - Uxbridge 1st May

With several athletes unavailable for this first fixture of the season, the team finished 6th of 8 teams. There were still some very good performances, particularly in the sprints and jumps; Ogo Anochirionye had a busy afternoon, winning the long jump with 6.79m, finishing second in the triple jump and fourth in the 100m. U17 Victor dos Santos was 2nd in the 400m with a 50.6sec pb and David Jetzvkowski was third in the javelin with 41.99m. 14 year old Rochelle Munroe-Graham ran well against older athletes with a 12.8sec pb in the 100m B race and 26.4sec in the 200m.

London Marathon Sunday 17th April 2011 - report by John Husbands

As has tended to be the case in recent years, marathon day was warm and sunny; great for spectators, but difficult for the runners who have trained long and hard throughout the winter. Speaking of which, after 5 months of 60 miles per week training, I took some persuading to withdraw from the race with an achilles tendon injury, but finally did so after being unable to train since the road relays (see below) and a fruitless final fitness test, 10 minutes limping around the streets of Perivale on Friday night! Heading to the halfway point with Phil, Barry, Mo and Naz we bumped into Christophe and Pascale for a quick report on Hugo's run in the mini-marathon; a good time of 16:21 and 18th place out of 190 for the 3 mile U17 race.

After the early starting wheelchair competitors and elite women swept past, the elite men led the masses through halfway. The First TVH runner to appear was James Sumpter in 72 mins at halfway, followed by another runner from Paul Oppe's LCS training group, second claim member James Tomlinson 2 mins behind. Matthieu Ribault came through halfway in 83 mins, holding back and running sensibly in his first marathon, when for so many runners the temptation to go out too fast over the first half is too great to resist. From our vantage point on the far side of the road it became more difficult to spot people as the flow became denser, but we had a perfect view of the runners returning from loops around the Isle of Dogs and Canary Wharf and passing us at 22 miles. James S had to slow in the second half of the race after a foot injury flared up after 4 miles and was overtaken by James T passing Big Ben near the finish, James T rewarded with a 2:31 personal best on a punishing day for distance running. Matthieu finished strongly for a great time of 2:47 on his first attempt.

The first of three TVH women who train at LCS in Paul's group to finish was Tracy Barlow in 3:52, followed by Jessica Bass and Vicky Lambert. Tracy and Vicky both did well considering injuries over the winter hampered their training preparations, while Jessica was stiff as a board after a huge personal best the week before at the Brighton marathon but still managed a decent run. Richard Anderson finished soon after Jessica, suffering badly in the final miles, after his good run at the Finchley 20 suggested a quicker time.

Another regular trainer at LCS, Jim Clark ran well finishing in 2-52, making a total of 7 runners from Paul Oppe's LCS training group completing the marathon, with 2 finishing in the top 75 and good personal best times (including Jessica's at Brighton) from all those who hadn't been hampered by injury.

Results:

James Tomlinson 2:31:53 (second claim, 67th overall, 61st male) James Sumpter 2:32:21 (72nd overall, 66th male) Matthieu Ribault 2:47:20 (375th overall)

Tracy Barlow 3:52:59 Jessica Bass 3:58:00 Richard Anderson 4:02:35 Vicky Lambert 4:11:43

London Mini Marathon Sunday 17th April 2011

A good turnout of 24 TVH young athletes represented their boroughs in the 3 mile London mini-marathon race. Chiara Kafero Roberts also ran the 1500m in the Alpha Beta trophy meeting at Lee Valley the previous day.

London Mini Marathon Results: U13B. 19 Joe Cooper, 18.22; 30 James Horrex, 18.40; 71 Nebay Haile, 19.34; 96 Darnell Chambers, 19.53; 101 Benji Arthur, 19.58; 148 Callum Lambert, 20.32; 234 Edward Wootton, 24.34.

U15B. 42 Archie St Aubyn, 17.47; 66 Louis Marriott, 18.22; 90 Joe Gilbert, 18.54; 108 Jack Keen, 19.09; 119 Zewede Hamid, 19.28; 191 Nicholas Ramovic, 22.11; 194 Danat Haile, 22.23.

U17M. 18 Hugo Cayssials, 16.21; 126 Ayuub Abdullahi, 19.21; 128 Henog Gebretinsae 19:23; 131 Michael Gebretinsae; 141 Kyle Kenrick 19:48.

U13 G. 43 Eve Goodhart, 20.55; 60 Rosie Vallance, 21.27; 61 Chiara Kafero Roberts, 21.30; 157 Bethlehem Mekonene, 24.02.

U15G. 67 Aneta Jaskulska, 22.16.

At the annual Alpha Beta Trophy Meeting at Lee Valley on Saturday 16th April the TVH combined senior Women and U15 Girls team finished second behind Blackheath and won promotion from the Beta to the Alpha Division for nex year.

12 Stage Southern Road Relay, Open University, Milton Keynes
Sunday March 27th, 2011

The Southern 12 Stage Road Relays once again took place at Milton Keynes on Sunday and despite some last minute changes the Valley men's team did well to finish in 15th place and qualify for the National Road Relay in Birmingham. Although this year's medal winning times were slower than last year, the competition for a top 10 place was much keener this year, as despite finishing nearly 6 minutes and 6 places down on last year's race, our time for this year's race would have still placed us 11th last year. The number of finishing teams also improved from 29 last year to 31 in this year's race.

Unfortunately injuries played a major part in this year's race for the Valley, with Ali Hay, Gordon Irvine, Andy Fooks and Naz Dawit all missing from last year's team due to injury. There was some good news however, with both Sean Renfer and Myles Edwards making their 12 Stage debut for the Valley and both performed well over a long leg and short leg respectively. Chris Smith, James Sumpter and Mohamud Aadan all ran strong long legs on the day, with flying Scotsman Rob Russell taking the honours as our fastest long leg of the day. The final long leg went to Valley vet John Husbands, who despite going off course and running with a sore achilles still put in a gutsy run to lead by example as any Chairman should!

It was a speedy debut for Myles Edwards to make him our fastest short leg of the day, and he was closely followed by Ali Yahye who ran a very good short leg on little training after recent injury. Matt Ponting showed good consistency, recording exactly the same time as last year's race, and once again Steve Norris and Manuel Da Silva were evenly matched over their short legs. The remaining short leg went to team manager Phil Wetton, and having already put the clocks forward on race day, unfortunately he couldn't turn back the clock despite his best efforts. There was also a strong team of Valley members who came out to give the team their support, including Paul Oppe and Roy Clarridge, with many thanks for their support and help on the day as it was much appreciated.

Last but not least I'd like to thank everyone in the team who gave their best for TVH – well done guys! There was also the TVH handicap competition to be decided, and with some good performances on the day it came down to Rob Russell as our fastest long leg and Matt Ponting as our fastest short leg. As there can only be 1 winner of the TVH Southern Relay Cup, their times were divided by their respective relay leg distances to give an average time per km. The overall winner was Highlander Rob Russell, who takes the trophy north of the border for the first time – Congratulations Rob! The results are below and I wish everyone good luck in their training and racing and a speedy recovery to those out injured.

Up The Valley,
Phil.

Senior Men's Race Result

15 Thames Valley Harriers 4:34:08

Chris Smith (12) 25:29 Myles Edwards (13) 18:22 Rob Russell (9) 24:45 Philip Wetton (16) 19:59 James Sumpter (13) 25:40 Ali Yahye (14) 18:32

Mohamud Aadan (11) 25:36 Matt Ponting (11) 18:52 Sean Renfer (14) 27:24 Steve Norris (14) 19:22 John Husbands (15) 30:50 Manuel Da Silva (15) 19:17

North West London Young Athletes League, 26^th March, Finsbury Park

Thames Valley Harriers are the overall League Champions for the 2010-2011 season. To win the title, the young Valley runners scored the most points from the 40 separate races held at five winter fixtures. There are eight clubs in the league and to win this trophy, the Valley scored good points in all the races. Pride of place goes to our Under 11 Girls team. They easily won their age group trophy by 10 points. We also had the overall champion, India Weir, with sister Kosana finishing third and Madeline Lloyd, fourth overall. With Rosie Vallance coming into the team for the last two matches, the girls have a very strong team. The Under 11 boys race was missing George Goodhart who was winning a Prep Schools event by over 100m at Barn Elms, so Callum Lambert was our lone competitor in this race. He finished a very good 15^th out of 40 runners. In the girls U13 race, Madeline Turner was a magnificent 3^rd. Her position was not recorded by the finish judges but the Referee and Race Organiser, Brian Fowler, spotted the error and corrected the results. This gave her 2^nd place overall in her age group. Beth Gebritinsae and Sara Lopez looked as if they were tied together throughout the race but Beth got to the finish line first.

Joe Cooper once again led the Under 13 boys race from the gun and although he faded to 4^th he dug in to finish 3^rd, 23 seconds behind the winner. Also in this age group, James Horrex, 7^th and Nebay Haile, 16^th ended their season with good runs. Although she only finished 12^th in her U15 race, Aneta Jaskulska was awarded 5^th place medal in the overall competition. The Under 15 TVH Boys were equal 1^st before this last race but Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers had a better team on the day and took the trophy. For the Valley, it was good to have another new athlete performing well. Toby Clyde worked his way up the field and finished 9^th. Passing Joe Gilbert, 11^th, Louis Marriott, 12^th and Abukar Yahye, 16^th on the way there.

Our only U17 in the Women’s race, Una McBurney came away with 3^rd place overall and Michael Gebretinsae was placed 5^th in the U17 men’s category.

Results

U11 Girls. 2, I. Weir 9:54; 3, R. Vallance 9:56; 5, K. Weir 10:19; 6, M. Lloyd 10:28; 14, E. Eden 11:23. Team 1^st

U13 Girls. 3, M. Turner 10:50; 26, B. Gebretinsae 12:58; 27, S. Lopez 12:59. Team 7^th.

U15 Girls. 12, A. Jaskulska 16:57; 22, O. Price 20.12.

U17 Women. 5, U. McBurney 19.45.

U11 Boys. 15, C. Lambert 11:44.

U13 Boys. 3, J. Cooper 13:47; 7, J. Horrex 14:19; 16, N. Haile 15:07; 25, T. Horrex 16:42. Team 2^nd.

U15 Boys. 9, T. Clyde 15:14; 11, J. Gilbert 15:25; 12, L. Marriott 15:27; 16, A. Yahye 16:07; 26, N. Ramovic 18:14; 27, D. Haile 19.09. Team 3^rd.

U17 Men. 9, A. Abdullahi 19:35; 11, S. Rashid 20:09; 12, M. Gebretinsae 20:27. Team 4^th.

TVH interviews with Alastair Aitken

James Murdoch - NAMES FOR THE FUTURE IN THE UNDER 15'S By Alastair Aitken

The first six out of 298 finishers in the Under 15 boys race, over 4,500m in the Inter-Counties were:-
1 Adam Howard (Greater Manchester) 14:58, who won the Under 13's in 2009; 2 Mathew Shirling (Merseyside) 15:01; 3 James Murdoch, the Middlesex Champion, 15:21, 4 Sean Chalmers (Scotland North) 15:25. 5 James Coleman (Lancashire) 15.32,, 6 Tom Holden (Surrey) 15.34
After Mathew Shirling at Croften Park came the, revelation of the season, 14 year old, Thames Valley Harrier, James Murdoch..
James Murdoch is advised by Bill Stoddart and Dave Daniels
    James Murdoch came 8th in the Under 15' Boys in the National at Alton Towers
    " The National was so muddy I was 150th and still had to work through so, I was never really in that group at the front"
     The Inter-Counties
"I started off in about 50th. I moved through the field in the second lap into the top group. Coming up the hill I was fourth but the guy in front dropped out so I was third which pushed me on that bit. Coming down the hill I gave it my all!"
Alastair has interviewed several other TVH athletes over recent years, including Chris Smith, Kermitt Bentham, Peter Clark, Ken Norris and Peter Browne. These interviews can be found at Alastair's page on the Highgate Harriers website;
http://www.highgateharriers.org.uk/hh_aa_interviews.php
Southern England XC Relays, Wormwood Scrubs Fields, LCS. Saturday March 12th, 2011.

VALLEY STRIKE GOLD ON HOME SOIL!    report by Phil Wetton

On Saturday, in the final race of this winter's cross country season, the TVH senior men's team produced a golden performance to win the Southern Cross Country Relays Championships.
TVH also played hosts to the staging of these brand new championships at Wormwood Scrubs fields, next door to Linford Christie Stadium, and so produced the first ever winner of the senior men's title on home ground! This new championship event on the Southern England cross country calendar provided races for all ages ranging from U13 girls and boys to senior women and men, with a total of 10 races on the day starting with the U20 women's race at 11.00am and ending with the senior men's race at 2.40pm.

The relay teams were made up of 3 runners per team who each ran over distances between 2km and 3km depending on their age group, with the only exception being the senior men's race which had 4 man teams who each ran 5km. An almost perfectly flat course consisted of a single lap around Wormwood scrubs fields, with the size of the lap varying for each race, and with mild weather on the day providing dry and firm ground underfoot this gave ideal conditions for some very fast racing. The only exception to this was a fairly strong headwind around some football pitches and small patches of mud going through a small copse of trees. As this was a new championship on the race calendar and also coming at the end of a long cross country season then inevitably the turnout on the day did suffer, but this didn't spoil the Valley men's celebrations after the final race of the day.

There were 26 teams on the start line in the senior men's race, including 3 teams from TVH, with Rob Russell on 1st leg for the TVH A team. Rob had travelled down from Scotland for the race, along with team mates Ali Hay and Myles Edwards, and so was determined to have a good run and he didn't disappoint. Right from the start Rob took the lead and it soon became clear that it was a 2 man race between Rob and the 2nd placed Tonbridge runner, but after about half a lap Rob pulled away and managed to build-up a 20 second lead to pass on to Ali Hay on 2nd leg. Ali had an outstanding season on the track last summer, competing for Scotland in the Commonwealth Games in Delhi and making the final of the men's 1500m, and this fine form was evident as he extended the A team's lead to well over a minute before passing on to Sean Renfer on leg 3. Sean is a new and very strong addition to the Valley team this winter and he's already had some excellent races and Saturday's relay was no exception, with no other runners for company he still pushed hard to build-up an unassailable lead to hand over to Mohamud Aadan on the final leg. Mohamud is in his first season as a senior for TVH but still shows maturity beyond his years when racing, and so in another fine solo run he stretched the Valley margin of victory to just under 2 minutes when he crossed the finishing line.

Congratulations to all 4 men of the winning team and also to Rob and Ali for running the fastest and 2nd fastest legs of the day respectively. Plus well deserved congratulations for good performances from the TVH B team in finishing 11th (2nd B team) and C team in finishing 19th (1st C team) out of a total of 24 finishing teams. Every Valley man gave their best both in running and supporting the teams and played their part in making it such a successful and enjoyable day for TVH! There were also some good TVH performances in the other races of the day, the most notable being the senior women's A team who finished in 8th place. Finally, a big thanks must go out to all the TVH members, volunteers, parents,etc, who helped out with numerous jobs on the day and all contributed to what proved to be a successful and well run championships in it's 1st year and looking forward to many more years to come.

SEAA XC RELAY : SENIOR MEN RESULTS

1st.    TVH A              :      59m:49s.
Leg 1 : Rob Russell           :        14m:31s.
Leg 2 : Ali Hay                 :        14m:37s.
Leg 3 : Sean Renfer         :        15m:27s.
Leg 4 : Mohamud Aadan :        15m:14s.

11th. TVH B              : 1h:11m:24s.
Leg 1 : Myles Edwards     :       16m:10s.
Leg 2 : Manuel Da Silva   :        17m:54s.
Leg 3 : Lee Benjamin       :        18m:24s.
Leg 4 : Louis William        :        18m:56s.

19th. TVH C              : 1h:16m:38s.
Leg 1 : Richard Bell          :        18m:23s.
Leg 2 : Paul Buhagiar       :        19m:02s.
Leg 3 : Richard Hooley     :        19m:36s.
Leg 4 : Mike Wilson          :        19m:37s.
Southern England XC Relays, Wormwood Scrubs Fields, LCS. Saturday March 12th, 2011.   Young athletes report by Roy Clarridge
Although TVH had teams in 7 of the races the young athletes found that they were outclassed by some of the best clubs in the south of England. They were all amazed at the speed of the races and did well to represent the Valley on their home course. The under 17 men finished in 10^th place after Hugo Cayssials ran 12:02 on the first lap, John Jull did 13:45 on the 2^nd and Michael Gebretinsae, 14.42. It was good to see 3 Valley teams in the under 13 girls race and the ‘A’ team did well to finish 13^th. Madeline Turner 8:25 was followed by India Weir 8:44 and twin Kosana, 9:11. In the ‘B’ team Chiara Kafero-Roberts had a great run on the 3^rd lap to bring the team home in 23^rd position with 8:44. The other runners were Annabel Morgan with 9:25 and Sara Lopez, 9.45. The ‘C’ team of Lena Cayssials, 10:36, Francesca Pascale 9:39 and Beth Gebretinsae 10.41 finished 27^th. The under 13 boys ‘A’ team were the most unfortunate. Abraham Mendes Da Costa had to miss the race through injuring himself at school and Joe Cooper was spiked by another runner and ran with a gashed leg. This meant that he didn’t run at his best and his time of 7:37 showed it. Benji Arthur was drafted into the team and did well to run 8:03. On the 3^rd lap, James Horrex had a very good run of 7.29 to bring the team in 9^th. The ‘B’ team of Nebay Haile 8.26, Edward Wootton 8:42 and Thomas Horrex 9.20 finished 23^rd.
The girls under 15 team had Aneta Jaskulska running 8:55 followed by Olivia Price having her first cross country race, 9:27. Eugenia Klemos enjoyed the short 2000m race and ran 9:29 to bring the team home 11^th. Without James Murdoch, who was saving himself for the English Schools Championships, the under 15 boys were further depleted when Joe Gilbert also dropped out of the team. Louis Marriott ran the first lap in 8:10 followed by Sam Cooper 8:19 and Jack Keen 7:58 to finish 18^th team. The ‘B’ team of Danat Haile 9:31, Zewede Hamid, 8:31 and Abukar Yahye, 7:37 finished 21^st.
5th March 2011     Inter Counties Cross Country Championships Birmingham report by Roy Clarridge
Three TVH young athletes ran for Middlesex in the inter-counties championships at Cofton park, Birmingham.Diminutive James Murdoch had the best race of his life to finish a magnificent 3rd in the under 15 boys race. This race contained most of the best athletes from Great Britain. There were over 300 finishers and Middlesex were deprived of second team place due to the 4th scorer, Sam Wilson of Shaftesbury Barnet AC, not having his timing chip device recorded. James found himself in 4th position with 300m to go to the finish when the boy in 3rd place collapsed to the ground 10 metres in front of him.
Abraham Mendes Da Costa and Madeline Turner represented middlesex in the Under 13 races.

U15 Boys. 3 James Murdoch, 15:21. U13 Boys. 191 Abraham Mendes Da Costa 12:09. Under 13 Girls. 218 Madeline Turner 13:22.

5th March 2011     Middlesex Masters Cross Country Championships, Ruislip report by Simon Maddison
Mad Bess Woods at Ruislip provides a super venue, with its switch backs through the woods, providing several good climbs each lap. This year the course was changed from previous years, keeping the field nearer the Ruislip side of the woods, and running in a reverse direction from before. The terrain is particularly challenging with its mix of leaf strewn woodland path, muddy woodland path, and long gravelly paths. Many runners were in studs, and those wearing spikes were mostly using the shortest. Fortunately the dry weather of the past week or so meant that the mud was soft rather than sticky, with only a few wet patches to contend with. All runners took the same course, with its starting loop round the small meadow, before heading off into the woods for a slightly shortened first lap, followed by two long laps before finishing around the same meadow again after a long fast descent on hard gravel path, all the way from the top.

Steve Norris ran strongly to finish 7th overall and 5th in the 40+. Lee Benjamin, still clawing his way back to fitness after ham string injury finished 38th overall, with Richard Bell, who has had a really strong season, snapping at his heels most of the way round and finishing just behind at 39th. Bernie Robbins was not far behind at 46th, with Mike Wilson only a few seconds later in 49th. Peter Hill was way off form finishing at 62nd, but he has had little opportunity to run this year.
Simon Maddison ran a very close race in the 60+, chasing John Myall of Hillingdon hard all the way until the final lap, when he surged to overtake just after the second climb, opening up a lead of 14 seconds by the final long hill and maintaining it down the hard fast gravel path descent to the finishing meadow to come in with County Gold, one up on his Silver of last year. Richard Charney, running XC for the second time this season after a long break of some 30 years (having focused on marathons and road racing) made a very welcome contribution to the team and came in with Bronze. And then it was back to the very convivial atmosphere of the Hillingdon Club House, for buns, homemade cake, the prizes and chance to watch the European indoor athletics!
By
Age        Overall
Group
5              7              Steve Norris                       TVH        M40       30.01
17           39           Richard Bell                         TVH        M40       34.21
20           46           Bernie Robbins                    TVH        M40       35.22
23           62           Peter Hill                              TVH        M40       38.02
4th Team (3 to count)

18           38           Lee Benjamin                    TVH         M50       34.17
23           49           Mike Wilson                       TVH        M50       35.30
6th Team (3 to count)

1              54           Simon Maddison              TVH        M60       36.33
3              69           Richard Charney               TVH        M60       39.11

26 February 2011 INDOORS - our triple jumpers were on good form at the second McCain City Challenge event held at Cardiff on 26 February. Angela Barrett started with two solid jumps and then went all out for a personal best and was rewarded with a leap of 13.18m in the final round. Nav Childs also performed well with 14.97m, his best jump for two years.
Annie Tagoe also performed very well over the same weekend, at the England Athletics Junior Indoor in Birmingham, winning the U20 60m in a personal best time of 7.41 sec on the Saturday and finishing third in the 200m in 24.57 sec (24.47 sec earlier in the heats). Rue-Anne Paisley also ran well to make the final in the U15 60m.

19 February 2011     English National Cross Country Championships Alton Towers Senior men report by Simon Maddison

Thankfully the rain that had hounded us up the M1 had pretty much gone by the time we arrived at Alton Towers on Saturday with 1.5 hours to spare for the Senior Men’s race, scheduled to start at 3.00 pm. But the rain had worked its magic, and approaching the meeting area and tents around the start it looked like nothing so much as a free range pig farm, no blade of grass to be seen and inches deep in slippery mud. No prizes for guessing what the course was like. Indeed the going was so slow, that the schedule got pushed back through the day, and many of the races were shortened.

After some confusion, the men’s race started at 3.00 pm, shortened to 10km from the originally planned 12. The first lap was 2k around the top of the course, followed by two long laps of 4k each. The start funnelled up to a short sharp incline which can be a bottleneck, before a snaking switchback round and back along the undulating meadow, with several short and quite steep climbs, pretty much all ankle deep in mud of the consistency good for the school pottery class. By this time inevitably it was well and truly churned up by the earlier races. With the course closely defined by tapes on either side there was not much scope for seeking out firmer ground, it was hard slog all the way round. After the initial 2k, the loops were repeated before a long steep drop to the bottom of the valley, with another double back at the bottom before THE HILL. This year, unlike 2008, some kind soul in the organising committee put in a dog leg 2/3 the way up, which also provided some merciful respite with one of the few bits of firm grass around the course. This is a lung buster, straight up in two stages, with the second one so steep to reduce many to a hunched walk or stagger. And then back to the slippery top again before a repeat for the final lap.

Chris Smith ran an outstanding race to finish 11th in what has been an excellent season for him. For Chris these are the conditions he loves. Keeping close to the leading bunch, particularly in the critical opening section, he worked solidly throughout the race in a very competitive field to finish with only a few seconds separating half a dozen runners. Sean Renfer also ran extremely well building on his performances this season, to finish in 182. Matt Ponting and Manuel da Silva finished very close at 420 and 423 with only 3 seconds between them, and Richard Bell pipped Phil Wetton by 45 seconds, finishing in 733 and 774 to bring in the team at 30th,, out of a total of 95. Simon Maddison brought up the rear slogging round in a good finish for him at 1005. Second claim runner Andy Lawrence was also competing and finished at 176, but of course could not count for the Valley.   The race was also graced by legendary marathon runner Ron Hill, now in his 70’s.

And then it was back to the mud bath by the start and a hopeless attempt to change into something that was warm and dry enough for the journey home.

Senior Men, 10k
11          Chris Smith                         36:47
182         Sean Renfer                       41:45
420         Matt Ponting                     46:12
423         Manuel Da Silva                46:15
733         Richard Bell                         51:04
774         Phil Wetton                        51:49
1005       Simon Maddison              56:54

1302 finishers
Team 30th

12 February 2011 Cross Country Metropolitan League Horsenden Hill

Young Athletes - report by Roy Clarridge
Thames Valley Harriers under 13 boys team are the Metropolitan League Champions for the first time since before 1990. The shield that was presented in 1992 at last has our name on it! To win the title, the team had to do well in four races over the winter and by scoring 234 points, easily beat second place Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers by 57 points.

Leading Valley runner was Joe Cooper who once again started very fast in the 3000m race to finish second. This was his best achievement of the season as he beat Youcef Harizi of Enfied & Haringey for the first time having raced against him at least 20 times over the last two years. Showing his commitment to the team, Abraham Mendes Da Costa came from a school rugby match and finished seventh out of 24 runners. Just behind him were james Horrex in ninth place and Benji Arthur, having his first race, 11^th. With Darnell Chambers, 17^th and Nebay Haile 18^th Thames Valley were easily the strongest team on the day.
Having been shown how to do it, the Under 17 men/Under 15 boys also won their race, though unfortunately not the league title. James Murdoch, fresh from winning the London Schools U15 Championships on Wednesday, finished second to Michael Callegari an U17 from Shaftesbury. London Schools runner-up to James, Hugo Cayssials also had another very good run in very different conditions to Wednesday’s dry Parliament Hill to finish fifth. In 17^th place, Joe Gilbert also had a good run to finish sixth under 15 in this race. Henog Gebretinsae has been too busy with exams to train recently and was pleased with his 20^th place. They won the four to score race by three points.
Beth Gebretinsae, 17^th and Sara Lopez, 18^th were our only runners in the under 13 girls race. Aneta Jaskulska was our lone runner in the U17/15 race and finished mid-field in 17^th place.

Senior Athletes - report by Phil Wetton
We all knew that Saturday's race was an important one and a strong performance was needed from the Valley senior men's team to survive in the Met League's division 1 next season. That was the question asked of them and boy did the men's team give a positive answer! A total of 22 Valley men lined up at the start, the largest turnout for many a season, and they did themselves proud to finish 3rd placed team on the day, their best result by far this season.
Not only that but Chris Smith continued his amazing form this season to win the race and was followed home by Mohamud Aadan in 3rd place, his best ever finish in his first season as a senior. Sean Renfer also improved on his Met League best in 20th place, with an impressive Valley debut from James Tomlinson hot on his heels in 22nd place. Andrew Lawrence once again proved his worth to the team in 33rd place, giving us a total of 5 in the top 50 and 9 inside the top 100, with Richard Bell bringing the team home as 12th man in 173rd.
The men's performance was mirrored by the Valley women's team of Siana Janes in 43rd, Jessica Bass in 45th and Pascale Witz making her debut in 68th, to finish 3rd team in division 2 on the day. The men's veterans team matched their overall league position with a solid 8th place finish in the veterans division 1.
I would like to thank every man in the team by name as they all played their part, but with a team of 22 men that would take a while.
However I would just like to welcome another Valley debut on the day from Ray Khamis, who despite missing the start still carried on to finish 247th.
At this point you may be expecting to read that we outscored the teams above us by enough points to avoid relegation to division 2 next season, but unfortunately we fell short by the smallest of margins, just 23 points. I can't deny it's a bitter pill to swallow after such a great team effort, but to dwell on such disappointment would be missing the point of what took place at Saturday's race.
Let's review the facts:
Individually we finished 1st and 3rd, we had 5 in the top 50 and 9 in the top 100, we were 3rd placed team and we put out our largest team of the season - Are these the stats of a defeated team?
The scope of the team covered all ages, ranging from U20 athlete Ali Yahye, coming back from the frustration of missing nearly a whole year due to injury, to Richard Charney, who once again pulled on a Valley vest having last run at Horsenden Hill some 30 years ago - if that's not inspirational then I don't know what is! Inspiration is definitely the key word here, as everyone commented on how great it was to have such a good turnout, how much they enjoyed the day because of this and why couldn't all races be this much fun. Well why not?
Too often nowadays athletics seems to be focusing only on the end results and placing serious pressures on athletes to win championship medals and financial rewards in a relatively short space of time. Yes there is and always will be a need to motivate athletes to succeed at this level, but have we lost sight of why we all came into the sport in the first place - for the sheer joy and love of the sport?
I'm not advocating that we all become a nation of so-called, "fun runners", a term which I have always despised, but why can't we have both?
Why can't we compete to the best of our ability and also have fun while doing so?
Which brings me back to Saturday's race, we achieved our best result of the season and we had the most fun while doing it!
If you weren't there on Saturday then just ask anyone who was and they'll tell you how much they enjoyed it.
So what are you waiting for, pull on your running shoes and come and join us, the more the merrier, and you never know, you may achieve a pb and also have some fun along the way. We may have lost the battle to avoid relegation, but we only have to build on the spirit and enthusiasm from Saturday's race and we can win promotion back to division 1 next season!

Up The Valley,
Phil.

Results

Senior Men. 1, Chris Smith 29:41; 3, Mohamud Aadan 30:13; 20, Sean Renfer 31:38; 22, James Tomlinson 31:46; 33, Andrew Lawrence 32:17; 86, Matt Ponting 34:58; 89, Steve Norris 35:07; 93, Paul Whitelam 35:14; 96, Ali Yahye 35:18; 107, Manuel da Silva 35:47; 140, Phil Wetton 36:57; 173, Richard Bell 38:58; 178, Christophe Cayssials 39:12; 189, Richard Hooley 39:41; 194, Paul Buhagiar 39:53; 216, Peter Hill 41:33; 221, Bernie Robbins 42:00; 230, Mike Wilson 42:45; 233, Lee Benjamin 42:56; 247, Ray Khamis 45:04; 249, Richard Charney 45:54; 260, Tony Smith 47:32. Team 3^rd. Overall Team 9^th 3620 pts.

Senior Women. 43, Siana Janes 26:48; 45, Jessica Bass 26:56; 68, Pascale Witz 28:33. Team (Div 2) 3^rd. Overall Team 8^th.

Under 17 Men. 2, James Murdoch 12:28; 5, Hugo Cayssials 13:14; 17, Joe Gilbert 14:39; 20, Henog Gebretinsae 15:11; 22, Sam Cooper 15:29; 25, Ayuub Abdullahi 15:45; 26, Zewede Hamid 15:51; 29, Michael Gebretinsae 16:40; 32, Danat Haile 17:57. Team 1^st. Overall Team 5^th.
Under 17 Women. 17, Aneta Jaskulska 16:40. Team 8^th. Overall Team 12^th.

Under 13 Boys. 2, Joe Cooper 11:09; 7, Abraham Mendes da Costa 11:39; 9, James Horrex 11:47; 11, Benji Arthur 12:04; 17, Darnell Chambers 12:32; 18, Nebay Haile 12:44; 23, Thomas Horrex 13: 33. Team 1^st. Overall Team 1^st.

Under 13 Girls. 17, Beth Gebretinsae 15:16; 17, Sara Lopez 15:35. Team 8^th. Overall Team 7^th.

29 January 2011     South of England Cross Country Championships: Parliament Hill
          Senior Men - report by Simon Maddison
The beautiful course at Parliament Hill is a demanding mistress, but on Saturday she was a little kinder. With no rain for the past   week, the mud on the course was not so wet and somewhat firmer, more like potters clay. Still plenty of it though. It was a cold overcast day with a chill wind out of the North East. So the runners for the Senior Men’s race were inclined to keep their outer layers on till the last minute. This though was a problem, as all runners needed to go through to the start via the too small chip inspection tent. Consequence, at least 100 runners were still not on the line when the start went.

The Southern Champs are unusual in being a full 15k long race. Three long laps over Hampstead Heath, with the long sort-em-out hill at the start, all the way to the top from the lido. Then the muddy stretch along the bottom of the first meadow, before a relatively dry crossing of the second, before the last outward climb towards Kenwood – very slippery and no way round. Across via the notorious sump and cliff at the back, then back along the top and a long switchback over the second meadow, with two climbs, before the fast stretch to the top of the breakneck descent down to the starting meadows.

Chris Smith ran an outstandingly good race, changing between 4th and 5th place. At the start of the final descent he was about 10 yds behind number 4 before sprinting past just yards before the finish to come home in an excellent 4th place. Mohamud Aadan, running his first Southerns as a Senior, did very well, despite being in the late starters, nearly 20 precious seconds behind at the off. He maintained a good pace throughout the whole distance coming in at 57 in a tight bunch where every second counted. Rob Russell, specially down from Aberdeen, was just inside the 100 at 91 closely followed by another up and coming young talent, Sean Renfer at 121. There was then quite a gap before Manuel da Silva, at 348 and John Husbands, vet and club chairman just 23 seconds behind at 368, and 6th Scoring man. Matt Ponting was next at 407, and Steve Norris at 507, with Christophe Cayssials who had literally been snapping at his heels through the race at 515. Phil Wetton then at 572 with Simon Maddison rounding it off at 713. All ran strongly over this demanding distance.
          Results
4             49:06     Chris Smith
57           53:09     Mohamud Aadan
91           54:44     Robert Russell
121         55:57     Sean Renfer
348         63:23     Manuel da Silva
368         63:46     John Husbands
407         64:52     Matt Ponting
507         67:47     Steve Norris
515         68:00     Christophe Cayssials
572         70:14     Phil Wetton
713         74:58     Simon Maddison
885 finishers

Senior Mens team placed 19th out of 81 teams
          Young Athletes - report by Roy Clarridge
Although hoping to do well in the South of England under 15 boys cross country championships, James Murdoch was unlucky to finish in sixth place. Having fought his way into second place in this field of 262 finishers his lack of height took its toll over the last mile and he was outrun by four much taller boys. Eight seconds separated second and sixth. The quality of this race was so good that the second Valley boy home, Louis Marriott, thought he’d had a good race yet was down in 203^rd place. Not far behind him, Joe Gilbert finished 225^th after being injured for three months. Making up the scoring team, who came 26^th out of 37 teams, Sam Cooper also had one of his best runs to finish 242^nd.

Abraham Mendes Da Costa is only 11 years old and ran against boys a year older in this under 13 race. Last week he finished a magnificent seventh in the Surrey Schools championships. He continued his fine form to finish 55^th in the Southern championships. Clubmate Joe Cooper who usually beats Abraham had to be content with 99^th place. James Horrex is still a novice but his 113^th place was an encouraging performance. Making up the scoring team was Nebay Haile who has taken part in nearly every club race this winter. Backing up the team were Darnell Chambers, 187^th and Edward Wootton, 201^st. Before the race Edward thought he would be last but after beating 22 boys he thought he could have done even better.

Most of the praise usually goes to the first club runner in the race but on this occasion it was the three Valley runners who finished in the last six in the under 17 mens race who deserve a mention. Because they ran, TVH finished a team. Only 14 other clubs managed to do that. Thanks, Michael and Henog Gebretinsae and Sadik Rashid. At the sharp end of the race, Hugo Cayssials had his best run for some time to finish in 71^st place. In the under 17 women’s race, Katharine Spooner was our lone runner and finished 80^th despite losing a shoe in the mud.

  Madeline Turner still looked fresh after her under 13 girls race. She was overawed by the size of the field, 242 runners and could have done better. Chiara Kafero-Robert came in 182^nd and was frozen stiff and had to be rushed away to have a hot drink. In the under 15 girls race we again had only two runners. Aneta Jaskulska wasn’t very fit and finished 175^th and Eugenia performed well to finish 186^th and closing on Aneta.
Results
Under 17 Men                                                 Under 17 Women
71 Hugo Cayssials, 22.57                               80 Katharine Spooner, 24.15
173 Michael Gebretinsae, 28.35
175 Sadik Rashid, 29.05                                 Under 15 Girls
176 Michael Gebretinsae, 30.12                   175 Aneta Jaskulska, 20.30
Team 18^th                                                        186 Eugenia Klemos, 21.15

Under 15 Boys                                                Under 13 Boys
6 James Murdoch, 15.49                                55 Abraham Mendes Da Costa, 12.54
203 Louis Marriott, 19.01                               99 Joe Cooper, 13.27
225 Joe Gilbert, 19.45                                     113 James Horrex, 13.34
242 Sam Cooper, 20.45                                  183 Nebay Haile, 14.43
262 Danat Haile, 25.45                                   187 Darnell Chambers, 14.55
Team 25^th                                                       201 Edward Wootton, 15.14
                                                                        Team 16th

6 February 2011 - Angela Barrett continues to set new personal bests in the triple jump, this time 12.99m at the McCain City Challenge event in Sheffield. The performance has been added to the updated Club Records page. Other updated club records include; Annie Tagoe holds the club records for 100m and 200m for U17, U20 and Senior age groups, Lisa da Silva holds the club records for both the 2000m steeplechase event (recently added to UK Women's league) and the half-marathon on the road and Ali Hay broke the long standing men's 1500m record during his impressive 2010 track season.

3 February 2011 - Performance Coach of the Year. Ron Roddan was presented with the London Region Performance Coach of the Year award in front of a packed clubhouse after training on Thursday evening. Ron had already received the National Performance Coach of the Year Award at the England Athletics annual Awards Night. The London Award was presented by Tony Shiret, Chair of the England Athletics London Regional Council. Our thanks to Neil Deans from England Athetics for organising the presentation and for the photo below.

15 / 16 January 2011 - congratulations to Angela Barrett and Annie Tagoe for their double event winning performances in the South of England Indoor Track & Field Championships held at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre. Angela set a new club record with a best distance of 12.89m in the senior women’s triple jump competition. Angela backed up the winning distance with 12.85m, 12.79m and 12.73m in a fine series of jumps and also won the long jump competition with a best jump of 5.57m.

Annie also started the indoor season in fine form winning the U20 women’s 60m in 7.49 secs (following runs of 7.53 secs in the heat and 7.51 secs in the semi-final) and the 200m in 24.69 secs.

Another TVH winner at the championships was Rue-Anne Paisley with 8.08 secs in the U15 Girl’s 60m and there were notable performances from Lumar Sylvester (22.43 secs in the men’s 200m) and Terry Scott (22.92 secs in the U20 men’s 200m).

1 ROB RUSSELL 30:55
2 CHRIS SMITH 31:43
79 JOHN HUSBANDS 39:17
141 MANUEL DA SILVA 42:01
150 MAREIKE JACKSCIK 42:19 (16th Female)
206 SIANA JONES 44:40 (30th)
209 JESSICA BASS 44:47 (32nd)
267 HOLLY EAGAN 46:44 (50th)
309 ANDREA BROUGHTON 48:21 (65th)

4th Ladies team, 616 finished.