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21 August 2010
BAL, Linford Christie Stadium, London
The final match of the British League season was make or break
for Thames Valley Harriers with the threat of relegation to Division 3 a very
real prospect. Lying in 7th place the Valley boys needed to produce a
better result than they had managed all season and in particular to beat
Leeds
City
who 6th in the League to ensure that they avoided the 2 relegation
places and remained in Division 2.
This was the first British League match to be held since the
home stadium was resurfaced, which also added to the excitement of the day and
the Valley boys responded magnificently to produce a really determined effort,
finish 4th in the match, beat target team Leeds City by 3 places, and
draw comfortably away from the drop zone. Overall the team stepped up to the
plate and produced a series of outstanding performances including a number of
season’s bests and lifetime bests.
The TVH Track Man of the Match was awarded to Lumar Sylvester for his lifetime
best of 21.74 in the B 200m and there were also personal best performances for
William De Torvy in the A 200m (21.84), for Rahim Wahedi in the 400m (50.21),
for Myles Edwards in the 1500m (4:01.99), and Tim Anderson in the Pole Vault
(2.60m).
Myles Edwards was awarded the Clubman of the Match for his
fine 800m/1500m double and was close to his best performance with 1:56.76 in the
800m. Several other athletes came close to their best performances, including
Shane Christie (
48.56 in
the A 400m), Paul Whitelam (8:33.76 in the A 3000m), James Sumpter (8:58.58 in
the B 3000m)ad Chris Smith (9:36.12 in the A 3000m steeplechase).
Nav Childs also made a welcome return to form jumping 14.06m
in the Triple Jump, following a season blighted by a heel injury, and only lost
out on winning the event in the final round. This fine performance earned Nav
the Field Man of the Match award. Elsewhere in the field, the heavy throwers,
Steve Whyte and Alistair Mortimore completed a very valuable season for TVH with
another consistent series.
Jason Comissiong again displayed his club spirit and covered
both the B 110m hurdles and Javelin in which events he scored very valuable
points, as he had done throughout the season. Jason is, of course, better known
as one of our best sprinters and his efforts over the season was recognised in a
special award of Club Man of the Season. Jason later combined together with
Nigel Thomas, Moses Bawo, and William De Torvey to clock the club’s best time
of the season of 41.69 in winning the 4x100m.
The final event was the 4x400m at which point Paul Oppe and the rest of the team
management had worked out that the club had produced the performance on the day
to climb out of the relegation zone. However, the race proved to be both
exciting and eventful. Following solid opening legs from Louis William and Lloyd
King the Valley were in contention for a top three finish when, at the second
changeover, the Herne Hill runner blocked Rahim Wahedi who was then clipped from
behind and almost fell. Rahim managed to stay on his feet but had to run the
whole leg with only one shoe and showed great commitment and determination to
stay in contention and left Shane Christie to battle all the way home in his
normal gritty way for 5th place. As Rahim is a devout Muslim he had
been fasting entirely during daylight hours during Ramadan and his performances
were therefore particularly noteworthy.
Team
Manager Paul Oppe’s closing remarks in the team presentations at the end of
the match summed up the day “We needed a big performance from everyone today
and I am delighted to say that you have delivered everything I had asked for –
Thanks to every one of you. Next season we’ll be challenging for promotion!”
24 July 2010 BAL
10 in 100 Winners, Luton
A fantastic team performance resulted in a narrow victory in
the Cup semi final at Luton today. This means we are in the final at Copthall on
Saturday September 4th. In winning we beat Blackheath from Div 1 and also Herne
Hill Harriers from Division 2. This needs to be the inspiration for a repeat
performance next week at Leeds in the league
We started with a good second place in the Hammer, Alistair
Mortimore throwing 36.97m. Immediately another second place by Adrian Assinor in
the triple jump with 12.92 put TVH into an early lead. Tim Anderson, improving
with each race, was 3rd in the 110h hurdles with 17.1, despite his blocks
slipping. Tim went on to finish a remarkable third again in the Pole Vault,
where luckily the Blackheath vaulter failed to clear a height.
Myles Edwards, flying down from Scotland for the event
narrowly missed a personal best finishing 2nd in the 800 with 1.55.3, while
Louis William enjoyed returning to the 400m with yet another 2nd place. Jason
Comissiong ran well in to strong head wind in the 200m and then immediately
afterwards followed up with 5th place in the 100.
Jonathan Harvey kept us in the running with 49.95 Javelin.
Paul Whitelamb was our only winner with a well judged race in the 3000m tracking
the leader before storming to victory over the last 250m in 8:38.5
Going into the medley relay we held a 1 point lead over
Woking. The team of Adrian, Jonathan, Louis and Myles succeeded in doubling our
advantage as Myles held off a strong Woking challenge on the last leg.
Final match score: 1. TVH 74 points 2. Woking 72 3. Blackheath
67 4 Stevenage 63 5. Epson 44 6. Herne Hill 38.
Keep the Final at Copthall on September 4th in your diary. Up
the Valley
4 July 2010
UK Women's League Division 2, Stevenage
Thames Valley Harriers came fifth just behind City of Glasgow
in their second match at Stevenage in the U.K. Women's League Div 2 on Sunday
4th July.. With a team weakened by injuries and illness they faced a resurgent
Herts Phoenix and Havering Mayesbrook who had finished last and last but one in
the first match. The main battle though was with City of Glasgow who came fourth
by a narrow margin. The result meant that Newham and Essex Beagles went into
first place in the Division with Thames Valley Harriers second (after their
decisive win in the first match) closely followed by City of Glasgow. The final
match will be at Coventry on the 1st August.. To maintain second position and so
gain promotion Thames Valley Harriers need to beat City of Glasgow in the last
match or at worst be not more than one place behind them.
A young team, many home grown, acquitted themselves well
contesting all the events. Rebekah Wiltshire came out of long jumping retirement
to jump 5.21 metres with her opening jump. Rebekah, Amber Simukonda and Hayley-Jayne
Cone ran the sprints in the absence of the club's regular sprinters and came
third in three of the races and fourth in the other. Emma Grant ran a personal
best of 2 min 11.0 secs to come second in the 800 metres beating some well known
names. Lisa da Silva won the 2000 metres steeplechase and Heather Timmins made a
welcome return after illness and injury running the 3000 metres . Ellisha Dee
made a rare appearance in the hammer, discus and shot forsaking rugby for a
short time. Eventually the absence of the club's star names and big points
scorers stopped the club from compiling a large score.
6 June 2010
Women's National League Division 2, Wakefield
Thames Valley Harriers opened their U.K. Women’s National
League programme with a convincing win in Division 2 at
Wakefield
on Sunday 6th June. A
total of 210 points put them
well ahead of their local rivals Newham (190 points) and City of Glasgow (174
points), their best ever performance. Conditions were not good with heavy rain
the morning and a slow track. .
An outstanding performance came from Emma Raven making her
debut and running a personal best of
9 min 31.50 secs in the 3000 metres. She also won the 1500m and was ably
supported by Lisa da Silva and Emma Grant winning the respective B string races.
Another newcomer Melanie Canning competing for Thames Valley Harriers as
a Higher Competition Athlete won the 400 metres hurdles in
63.11 secs and the 100metres hurdles in 14.81 secs
The
team was a mixture of experienced athletes and a number of very young ones who
have come up from the younger age groups, some having joined the club when only
twelve or thirteen. In the first
group G.B. heptathlete Phyllis Agbo won
the long jump in the rain (
6.07
metres
)
and the shot (
12.64
metres
)
and Yvette Henry came 2nd in the 100
metres ( 12. 49 secs) and 2nd in the
200
metres
(25.4 secs). In the second group Esther Ajie
had a personal best of
1.55
metres
in the High Jump, Kizzi Barazetti in her first club competition pole vaulted
2.30m in the rain and Rebekah
Wiltshire continued her improvement in the
100
metres
hurdles ( 15.77 secs).
6 June 2010
British Athletic League, Derby
With an unprecedented number of regular team members absent
through injury and illness the team that headed north to Derby for the first
match of the British League season looked vulnerable from the outset. However,
like the weather forecast for thundery showers the Valley's overall performance
was not nearly as bad as it could have been.
There were individual performances that shone through and the
club's eventual 7th place on the day was better than expected, especially as the
next 3 clubs were within striking distance and hopes remain high for the
remainder of the season. Toby Sandeman won the TVH Track Man of the Match award
as he made his UK season's debut in the 100m and 200m and ran out a comfortable
winner in both events in 10.84 and 21.22 with a headwind in each event. Having
had early season injury niggles it was good to see the reigning Under 23
European 200m champion back on track. He was a class apart from the opposition
and he now embarks on a series of international races at the start of his
preparation for the European Championships in Barcelona later this summer.
Toby finished off his day's work with a storming last leg in
the 4x100m to clinch victory for the club. The other Valley sprinters also
impressed as we dominated the sprints with fine runs from Nigel Thomas (10.94
winning the B 100m), William De Torvy (22.08 winning the B 200m), and Jason
Comissiong whose impressive 4x100m leg helped us on the way to victory.
Other impressive track performances came from Shane Christie
in finishing 2nd in the 400m in a season's best of 48.9. Rob Russell who made
the long trip down from Aberdeen to take 2nd in the 3000m in 8:28.68, and the
4x400m squad of Louis William, Lloyd King, Rahim Wahedi, and Shane Christie
combined to produce an exciting finish to snatch 2nd place.
In the field the team was decimated by the loss of world
master's throws champion Steve Whyte who fell ill and was confined to his
sickbed for the weekend. Losing Steve was a hammer blow (no pun intended) to the
throws team and we wish him a rapid recovery. However, there were successes in
the field as Matt Morsia dominated the Triple Jump competition. Fresh from a
lifetime best of 14.91m in the Kent Championships he reached 14.42m to win by
35cm (over a foot in the old money) and was ably backed up by Nav Childs who
took the B event in 13.27. Matt's win secured him the TVH Field Man of the Match
award. The Long Jump provided youngster Kerry Mathurin with the perfect
opportunity to shine and he produced a lifetime best jump of 6.77m for 3rd
place.
As always the team spirit in the Valley camp remained high and
there were a number of athletes willing to take on unfamiliar events to score
those hard won but vital points. The TVH Clubman of the Match award was
presented to Jason Comissiong who, in addition to his fine sprinting, threw an
impressive 47.04m in the Javelin and 8.81m in the Shot. Special thanks also go
to John Husbands, Rahim Wahedi, Nav Childs, and Steve Norris who covered off
another 7 events between them.
The next match will be held in Kingston in a month's time,
when a number of new members are scheduled to make their debuts. With a return
to the team for key athletes missing from this match Paul Oppe and the
management team are confident of a rapid climb up the league table.
29 May 2010
South of England Under 17 / Under15 Championships, Ashford
Edmond Amaning won the Men's Under 17 200 metres in a time
of 22.10 secs into a slight wind.
17 April 2010
12 Stage National Road Relay, Sutton Park,
Birmingham
Saturday's National Road Relay proved to be another step in
the right direction for the Valley men's team, after being unable to field a
team in last year's race and only finishing an incomplete team in 2008, this
year's race saw them finish in a very creditable 36 out of 61 finishing
teams.
The only recent result for comparison is when we finished 30th team in the 2007
National relay, however this year's race saw a number of TVH absentees who were
taking part in marathon races or had other commitments. Nevertheless the Valley
men racing on the day all gave their best to conquer the 6 x 4.8km short legs
and 6 x 8.5km long legs, as well as having to contend with the warm and sunny
conditions which could give rise to dehydration.
Once again as in the Southern relay there were a number of Valley juniors who
were making their debut in the National team, with Mohamud Aadan, Naz Dawit and
Ali Yahye all acquitting themselves well. There were also 2 seniors making their
Valley debut at this year's National, Paul Whitelam and Myles Edwards, who both
proved to be valuable additions to the team. Alongside them Andy Fooks, Gordon
Irvine and Manuel Da Silva carried on their good efforts from the Southern
relay, and they were ably backed up by the vet quartet of Steve Norris, Ash
Khan, John Husbands and Lee Benjamin.
A special thanks must also go to Myles Edwards' Dad, Mel, or the “Driving
Scotsman” as he may come to be known after Saturday's race. For not only did
he come down from north of the border to support Myles and the rest of the
Valley team but he drove the whole way there and back, a round trip of 700
miles! This epic journey also proved to be even more fortuitous given the fact
that there were no planes flying on the relay weekend due to the volcanic ash
which had grounded all UK flights, so thank you again Mel and Myles, you really
displayed true Valley spirit and your support was much appreciated.
I'm proud to say that the Valley spirit was definitely in good supply on
Saturday and I'd also like to point out the valiant efforts of Gordon Irvine and
Ash Khan. As some of you may or may not know, Gordon sustained a hamstring
strain after only half way on his long leg, yet still managed to finish in a
decent time. While Ash came out to run a short leg despite still suffering from
the effects of flu, but managed to bring the team home on the final leg in a
good time, totally exhausted after all his efforts.
I could go on and give more examples of how each member of the team gave that
little bit more on Saturday, but suffice to say that the Valley spirit is alive
and well and living in the team and long may it continue onto greater
achievements – well done to every one of you for a great race!
The TVH handicap competition was also run on the day, with the TVH National
Relay trophy up for grabs. It turned out to be a hard fought competition with 2
debut runners, Paul Whitelam and Naz Dawit, ending up with the fastest times.
Paul flew round the course to top the short leg times and Naz went all out to
top the long leg times. As in the Southern relay their handicap times were
divided by their respective relay leg distances to decide the winner with an
average time per km.
The overall winner and the new recipient of the National relay trophy was Paul
Whitelam – Congratulations Paul! The race results show what can be achieved
through determination and team spirit and if we carry this on we can build a
brighter future for TVH.
14 March 2010 South
of England AA Masters Cross Country Championships: Trent Park, Cockfosters
The Cross Country season rounded off with its most esteemed
event, the South of England AA Veterans Champs (‘Masters’ for the
politically correct, or perhaps it should be called the ‘Mature runners
champs’). This year the event was combined with both the Middlesex
and the Hertfordshire County Championships as well.
Trent Park provided a beautiful early spring venue, with clear
blue skies and mild temperature, marred only by a fresh north westerly. The
course was set on the southern side of the park, over the meadows of two
extended valleys, in sunshine for a good part of the afternoon. The going was
mostly firm and very fast across cropped turf, with only a few soggy patches on
the upper part of the circuit. The wind did not have much impact, being
crossways across much of the top circuit, and having little effect at the bottom
of the valley or up the several hills.
The first race was the Men’s 50-69, covering 3 full laps
over 10km, each lap starting with a loop on the flat – good for spectators -
before a sharp drop to the first valley and a long loop over the hill to the
meadows and back again, with an excitingly narrow two way traffic hill
linking the upper and lower parts of the course. Sadly depleted through injury,
international engagements and misadventure, only three Valley men made it in the
50-59 age group, Lee Benjamin finishing well up at 5th in the
Middlesex followed closely by JJ Quirke at 8th, and anchor man Tony Smith in 30th,
to finish a disappointing 6th team, when compared to last year’s
team bronze and Lee’s individual Silver. The only consolation was Simon
Maddison running strongly and steadily in his inaugural 60+ race, coming in 13th
overall and 2nd in the Middlesex to win silver.
In the Junior Men’s race (40-49) run over the same distance
some 1.45 hours later, misadventure cost the Valley its third team member, so
that only Phil Wetton and Richard Bell made it around, both running good strong
races, to finish: 47th and 66th respectively.
Very many thanks to Barrie Saunders for his support and
enthusiasm throughout the year, and for his great photography capturing some
excellent shots.
6 March 2010 NW
London YAL League: Wormwood Scrubs
Thames Valley Harriers young athletes had a rousing finish to the cross country season. In the final North West London League match held on Wormwood Scrubs on Saturday the Valley won three out of the eight team races. They also had high placements in different age groups. The outstanding run of the day came from Chiara Kafero-Roberts in the under 11 girls race. She went straight into the lead of the 1700m race and while negotiating a very muddy part of the course she lost a shoe. Instead of stopping to retrieve it, she ran half the race without it and finally won her first-ever cross country race by 3 seconds. Over the season the athletes gain points for every race and Chiara’s efforts gained her equal second place in the league. Also in this race were 12 other Thames Valley girls, the biggest team in the race. The next best were Highgate Harriers with six. The Valley girls were: Emily Arnold having her first run 7th, India Weir aged only 10 8th, Annabel Morgan running with growing pains 9th, Gaby Djukic and Ellen Bailes having their usual tussle 12th and 13th, twin Kosana Weir who suffered from stitch 13th and another 10 year old Maddy Lloyd 14th. Another tussle gave newcomer Hannah O’Byrne a two second victory over Sarah Goodhart with 19th and 21st places. Bringing up the rear were Emily Simpson-Dent 24th, swimmer Lena Cayssials 25th and eight year-old Megan Wheeler 27th.
Under 13 Eve Goodhart had a rare defeat in her 2200m race but she had won the London Schools year 7 and 8 championships last Wednesday and finished a superb 103rd out of 417 in the National Championships at Leeds the previous week-end. She is still an under 13 next year! Eugenia Klemos was in the middle of the race with 11th place and Zara Huband finished 20th. Aneta Jaskulska was the only Valley runner in the u15 girls race and ran a very good race to finish 3rd. She also finished 2nd in the league.
In spite of winning the u11 boys team race the Valley missed winning the team trophy by one point. Alex Hampshire had his best result of the season to finish 3rd which gave him 3rd in the overall league. George Goodhart was close behind in 5th spot. His greatest disappointment was being beaten by his sister Eve who’s race was held in conjunction with the boys. He then had the satisfaction of silver medal for the season. Abraham Mendes Da Costa was disappointed with his 9th position but Jake St Aubyn was delighted with his place. Saul Gilbert was 19th in his first run and Samuel Bernard was 22nd in his only race of the season.
The under 13 boys team also won their event with Archie St Aubyn getting back from a rugby injury and finishing 3rd. Joe Gilbert is having a great season and although beating Archie in the National Championships, finished just behind him in 4th place. Knowing he had a chance to win a league medal, Joe Cooper also had a good run to finish 6th. The other team scorer was John Gray in 14th place. After winning the Independent Schools under 15 championships last week, Hugo Cayssials got the bit between his teeth and had his best league run to finish 2nd. Unfortunately the rest of the team were of a different standard with Kyle Kenrick 16th, Nabil Toumi 17th, Sam Cooper 20th and Balal Toumi 21st.
27 February 2010 National
Cross Country Championships: Roundhay Park, Leeds
A long journey up to Leeds on Saturday morning brought the Valley men to this year's National
Cross Country Championships at Roundhay Park. Although the temperature had fallen to a brisk 3C, there was only a slight breeze and light drizzle in the air as over 1400 senior men lined up for the start.
They were facing a 12km course of 3 large laps around Roundhay Park, which had drained well despite the heavy rainfall the week before the race.
Having expected plenty of mud, the ground underfoot was surprisingly good, with the only exception being some patches of heavy mud around the start and finish area.
The course itself was one of extremes, beginning with a fast, flat stretch at the start which lead onto a sharp downhill section that was so steep you were in danger of falling head over heels if you didn't slow yourself down before you reached the bottom.
And then there were the hills! As the race moved out towards the lake at the far side of the park this marked the halfway point in the lap and the long, slow climb back towards the start/finish of the lap.
This climb was not just 1 hill but a series of hills set back to back, with short stretches of flat ground providing only a brief recovery in between.
Then just when you thought you were done you were faced with a monster hill climb before you reached the finish, although only around 100m long it was so steep you could justify using mountaineering gear to reach the summit if the race rules had allowed it!
On the day the senior men's team was severely depleted due to injury and work commitments, with only a 6 man team starting the race, and it was a great shame that having ran so well in the Southern XC an injury only days before the race denied Chris Smith the chance to compete in the National
XC. It was good to see Rob Russell leading the Valley men around Roundhay Park, he was a very welcome addition to the team having made the long train journey from Aberdeen and then Glasgow to make it to Leeds.
Unfortunately injury once again hit the Valley men, as Rob was forced to drop out with an injury he had suffered 5 weeks earlier, made all the more painful by the fact that he had only just started training again the week before the race.
It was Gordon Irvine who took the honours in leading the men's team home in 272nd place, a good performance as he has only raced the latter half of this season and is still yet to reach full fitness.
Manuel da Silva fought hard to be next home in 493, closely followed by a good run from Matt Ponting in 506, then Phil Wetton in 768
and Richard Bell in 977. With only 5 finishers TVH were 1 man short of finishing a team, FRUSTRATING is the most polite word that I can write!!!
The fact that 6 Valley men had given up their whole day and received no reward for all their efforts is not good enough, we should have had more men up there to back up the team in the event of illness or injury which did unfortunately strike the team on the day.
The senior men next have the Southern 12 Stage Road Relays at Milton Keynes in 3 weeks time on Sunday March 21st - so come on guys, get out there and SUPPORT YOUR CLUB!
Things were definitely looking better for the Valley's Junior Men on Saturday, thanks to some very good performances in the U20 men's race they were a credit to TVH in turning out and finishing a full team.
Mohamud Aadan in his final season in the U20's ended his junior career with an excellent run to finish in 30th place out of a field of just over 200 and we look forward to his continued success when he joins the seniors next season.
He was very well supported by Naz Dawit who had a strong run to finish 67th and he can still look forward to a further 2 years in the U20's and continued improvement.
Despite suffering from a minor injury Ali Yahye did very well to finish the 10km course in 170th and was closely followed by Sean Pike Locke in 181st who is improving every race to bring the 4 man team home to finish 13th team overall - well done guys!
Sadly there is no news to report for the Valley's senior women's team, as although Lisa da Silva had hoped to lead the team home and improve on her 60th place last year, she was unfortunately suffering from flu and forced to withdraw from the race.
Last but not least, a big word of thanks must go to Roy Clarridge, Paul Oppe, Barrie Saunders and John Smith, who all gave up their time to help to transport and look after both the senior and junior teams at Leeds.
13 February 2010 Metropolitan
League Match 4: Perivale
A week’s worth of Siberian winds blowing across the tundra
of West London prepared the normally sodden fields of Horsenden Hill well for
the final race of the Metropolitan League on Saturday. This course, notorious
for wet and very muddy conditions was still challenging, wet and muddy in
places, but not a patch on what it can be. With a very cold wind blowing
from the North, everyone was well wrapped till just before the start, and it was
hard going across the first meadows, after the usual traffic jam after the start
where traffic bunches up to squeeze through the first gap. For several years now
though the surface at this point has been filled with hard core, spoiling the
runners from a cold muddy sump.
Once at the far end of the playing fields though, it was a
firm run round the outer edge of the furthest limits of the course, with
relatively firm footing on the hills making it for much easier climbs than in
usual years. Only a short stretch of packed sand path, part of the council’s
gentrification programme, makes for a few yards of easy running and a reminder
of how much harder it is to run across the turf. With 3 full laps at the end of the day’s programme, this was a fitting end to the season, albeit reduced to 4 races because of the earlier cancellation of the 4th race at Stevenage through snow and
ice.
With our young front runners Mohamud Aadan and Naz Dawit putting in very strong performances, backed by stalwarts Andy Fooks and Manuel
Da Silva amongst other regulars, we finished with 7 runners in the first hundred, and a brilliant 3rd team place. Pulling us up to 8th in the league overall, a significant improvement on last year, and a great reflection on the new talent in the team. The vets
also turned in a solid performance, finishing 8th team and finished 9th overall, again a solid if modest improvement on last year.
In the women’s race, our sole star Lisa Da Silva finished in 11th, extremely good, but not the best of the season.
Joe Cooper in 11th
place led the Thames Valley Under 13 boys team to 3rd place. Close
behind in 13th place was Joe Gilbert, having another improved run. He also run
in the Middlesex Schools Championships on Thursday. The other two members of the
team were John Gray in 23rd position and Abraham Mendes Da Costa in
26th. It was a magnificent achievement to finish 3rd team
overall in the league championships out of 16 teams.
Under 15 Aneta
Jaskulska also had a good race to finish 13th, her best result of the
season. After her usual fast start she went back from 6th place and
then held on to finish strongly. In the boys U15/U17 race the Valley runners
were at the back of the field with Kyle Kenrick leading them home in 33rd
place. Zewede Hamid was 34th, Nabil Toumi 35th, Sam Cooper
36th and Balal Toumi 37th.
6 February 2010 North
West London YA Cross Country League: Hendon
Thames
Valley Harriers youngest athletes were well to the front in their races at
Copthall Arena on Saturday. In the first race of the day, the U11 girls, Chiara
Kafero-Roberts soon established herself in 4th place and stayed there over the
1960m course. Close behind were Ellen Bailes, 6th and Gaby Djukic 7th. This was
only the second race for both these girls and they finished very strongly. In
11th place was Maddy Lloyd with Sarah Goodhart in 15th place. Her twin brother
George Goodhart had another brilliant run to finish 2nd in the U11 boys race.
Arriving late for the race, Alex Hampshire's run from the car park was his
warm-up and in the race he just held off clubmate Abraham Mendes Da Costa.
Having his first run, Jake St Aubyn found that the race started very fast but
pulled through the field to finish 13th. Archie St Aubyn was 4th in the U13 boys
3000m and just held off fast finishing Joe Cooper by 2 seconds. The girls 3000m
saw another Goodhart, Eve winning by 4 seconds after a tough battle with Besirat
Tesfu of Ealing & Southall. Another good run came from Eugenia Klemos in
13th place. Aneta Jaskulska had her best race in this league so far. Her 3rd
place came after a two week rest after an injury. After finishing last again it
was discovered that Balal Toumi has been racing in flat training shoes! He was
behind cousin Nabil, 17th and Sam Cooper 19th in the Under 15 boys race. Lets
hope that with better shoes he can get away from last place next time.
30 January 2010 South
of England AA Cross Country Championships: Parliament Hill
It
was a very bright sunny day for the SEAA Cross Country Championships, and
surprisingly mild, with only a light northerly breeze giving a chill from time
to time. Given the very heavy frost and light snowfall of the night
before, we might have expected a hard course, but Hampstead gave us every
possible condition underfoot, from firm paths with good grip to the spikes, hard
frozen track, soft meadow tufts gently yielding underfoot, and then of course
the mud. As the Inuit are supposed to have dozens of words for snow, the cross
country runner should have as many for mud: the wet slip sitting thinly on the
turf; the deep squelch; the potter’s clay – sometimes squeezed up to expose
firm footing; soft and semi-dry that would be good for raku; the crumbly leaf
litter redolent of mushrooms; pale grey boils welling up from under turf; and of
course the deep foot and shoe sucking sumps.
In
the senior women, the sole club runner was Lisa da Silva, who was unfortunately
not running at her best. In the under 20 men run over 8000m, Mohamud Aadan
seemed to have got the hang of the course, and showed excellent form, pounding
down the final steep and slithery slope hot on the heels of a couple of other
runners; likewise Naz Darwit managed to close a couple of places on the bunch
ahead of him. As a team we beat both Hillingdon and Ealing, but were well down
overall in a very competitive race.
The
senior men’s race is by far the most demanding of the season, run over a full
15km. This means 3 full laps at Hampstead Heath, starting from the pens by the
lido, up the long, long funnelling climb to the first hill, before the muddy
descent and climb across the first meadow, the field fanning out on a hopeless
quest for firmer footing. On to the loops and switch backs of the second meadow
with its frozen dew pond, and the sumps before the most northerly climb,
considerately scattered with shredded Christmas trees, and thankfully frozen for
the first part of the ascent before turning to the accustomed mud. Then across
the cambered paths in the woods at the top of the course, two sumps and a
vicious climb before sweeping back into the double loop around the second
meadow, with its two slogging, calf cramping climbs directly into the blinding
low sun. And the final leg breaking slippery descent, testing the nerve of all
runners – do you dare let it all go? Will your feet slip away from under
you?
Chris
Smith ran an outstanding and very strong race on this the course where he is in
his element. Gordon Irvine also put in an excellent performance, taking it
cautiously at first; being a naval doctor he has put his training in pounding
the decks near South Georgia in the South Atlantic, no doubt with its own
singular challenges. Manuel da Silva was also very pleased with his performance.
The
first race of the day was the Under 15 Boys 4000m. Thames Valley's first boy
home was James Murdoch. Finishing 50th he beat several boys who had beaten him
in the County Championships the previous week. One of them was club mate Hugh
Cayssials who was 66th. At the back of the field were Nabil Toumi, Samuel Cooper
and Balal Toumi. Our lone runner in the Under 13 girls race was Eugenia Klemos
who just got inside the first 200 with her 199th place. Also determined to
improve was Under 13 Archie St Aubyn. His 93rd place saw him beat several of the
boys who beat him the previous week. Next home were Joe Gilbert and Joe Cooper
having their own private battle. Due to school football being cancelled, John
Gray showed his keenness and turned up to run and was the fourth scorer for the
team. Not far behind him was Abraham Mendes da Costa finishing 167 in a field of
212 runners.
23 January 2010 Middlesex
Cross Country Championships: Ruislip Woods
It
was overcast and bone-chillingly damp on Saturday at Ruislip Woods for the
Middlesex Country Cross Country Championships. This had been postponed from 2
weeks before because of the weather. Given that last year at Trent Park it was
sub-zero and the ground was rock hard, was this a case of Health & Safety
gone mad? In all fairness it was more to do with access to the course and
parking on an ice rink. Possibly because of the postponement, and more likely
with the Southern's to be held this coming weekend at Parliament Hill, the
numbers were a bit down, and missing some key runners.
With
weeks of snow, freeze and thaw, and several wet days over the past week, most of
the course through the woods had a good layer of sticky mud over it, with lots
of gloopy lumps. Compared to the first Met League, at the same location, which
was fast and firm, this was real cross country, complete with the muddy water
jump between the meadow and the woods. The starting meadow, just above the Lido
car park, was quite wet underfoot, as the pack ran the first loop, spreading out
prior to the infamous ditch into the woods. At 12 km for the men’s senior
race, this was 3 full laps over this demanding and confusing course, with its
abundance of switchbacks, the sharp turns made all the more hazardous because of
the slippery mud. Several runners came a cropper, full face down. With the
frequent changes of direction, climbs and dips, the pace changed all the time,
and the cold mud on legs sapping energy, made for tiring climbs, bringing some
runners to a walk on the steeper ascents.
The
field spread out quite quickly with a very creditable performance from the
Valley Team, Andy Fooks making a welcome appearance and coming in a very good
11th, Manuel da Silva at 24th, Ash Khan at 38th,
closely followed by Steve Norris at 44th. Bernie Robbins and Phil
Wetton were in close contention at 58th and 61st, and
Richard Bell at 78th after an uncharacteristically slow start and
Peter Hill down on his usual form after suffering from cramps in the second lap
at 82nd, with Simon Maddison bringing up the rear with a strong run
at 91st. The 6 man team came it at 5th place overall.
In
the under 20 men, racing over two laps at 8000m, Mohamud Aadan continued his
excellent season’s form, putting in a very strong performance in second for
the Silver, and leading the TVH team home for Bronze with Ali Yahye at 11th
and anchor man Sean Pike-Locke at 15th.
In
the earlier women’s race, also over 8km, Lisa da Silva was again put in an
excellent performance, coming in 3rd for the Bronze. Diana Kennedy
made a very welcome appearance and a return to form, finishing strongly in 11th
place, followed by Tracy Barlow at 23rd. Unfortunately without a 4th
team member, they did not qualify for the team competition, but would have been
in with a chance for bronze at least.
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