Good Start to Cross Country Season for Young Athletes
NW London Young Athletes Cross Country Greenford Sat 29th Sept 2018
A large number of young athletes turned out on a sunny day for the first cross country competition of the season. TVH were well represented in all races except the Under 17 Men’s race. With two team wins and four individual second places we can say it is a pleasant start to the season.
With Skye Bishop leading for most of the way in the Under 11 race but she was finally pipped by a girl from Cookham who had a stronger finish. Farrah Ceric seemed to be the smallest girl in the race and did well to finish 11th out of 39 finishers. Rihanna Sherif was having her first race for the club and was pleased with her 19th place. The team finished second to Highgate out of the 15 teams competing.
The Under 11 Boys event also had a Valley athlete in second place; Reggie Rock finishing just 7 seconds behind the London Heathside winner. With strong back-up from Wilf Howard-Vyse (6th) and Louis Moore (7th) they easily won the team race by 25 points. Ollie Seraj ran well for 12th place and Tommy Cogan was having his first outing and did well to finish 22nd with five boys behind him. The Under 13 Girls, running alongside these boys also had another second place in Charlotte Edge. She was beaten by A Abdinahman of Hillingdon who last year won every Under 11 race in this league by about 100m. Charlotte’s 10 seconds defeat shows how well she ran. With Maya Sutaria having her first cross country run for TVH in seventh place and Sasha getting back on form in 13th place the team were in second place, only four points behind Cookham. After a slight injury kept Katerina Simanova out of the Crystal Palace relay, she did well to finish in 15th place, one ahead of Skyla Robertson who also did well to beat 40 others in this race.
With all the talent we have in the Under 13 Boys event it was hard to believe that we only had the last two finishers in their race. Henry Turner had played rugby before being persuaded to turn out for TVH. Working together with Dylan they moved up to 30th and 31st and had 15 boys behind them at the finish. Although we only had three under 15 Girls running. They finished third team in what was the least supported race of the day. Lily Dafter is getting back on track with her 10th place and Aramay Robertson did well to be just behind her at the finish. In 21st place Zenia Nelson looked as if she had more in the tank which she has to learn to empty.
A very strong field in the Under 15 Boys race found Basil Rock having a good race but being down in 11th place. He didn’t run badly and was under 45 seconds behind the winner. After a change of plans Aidan Ferrand was able to take part and improved throughout the race to finish 26th. Romadan Sherif was having his first cc for the Valley and should improve next time.
Our Under 17 Women were out in force. Usually their race consists of eight or nine starters. This time there were 18 finishers. Having a great run, Niamh Murphy was a brilliant second, leading the team to win the race by seven points. Melina Duer was a good fourth with Lily Cheshire (6th) running well to just beat Capucine Rousset (7th).
Under 11 Girls 1200m. Team 2nd.
2 S. Bishop 5:42; 11 F Ceric 6:20; 19 R Sherif 6:48.
Under 11 Boys.2000m. Team 1st.
2 R Rock 7:03; 6 H Howard-Vyse 7:25; 7 L Moore 7:28; 12 O Seraj 7:45; 22 T Cogan 8:25.
Under 13 Girls. 2000m. Team 2nd.
2 C Edge 7:04; 7 M Sutaria 7:16; 13 S Mueller 7:31; 15 K Simanova 7:36; 16 S Robertson 7:37.
Under 13 Boys. 3000m. Team 12th.
30 H Turner 12:26; 31 D Bilboul 12:27.
Under 15 Girls. 3000m. Team 3rd.
10 L Dafter 11:52; 11 A Robertson 12:01; 21 Z Gordon 12:24.
Under 15 Boys. 4000m. Team 8th.
11 B Rock 13:22; 26 A Ferrand 14:18; 40 R Sherif 15:41.
Under 17 Women. 4000m. Team 1st.
2 N Murphy 14:44; 4 M Duer 15:11; 6 l Cheshire 15:31; 7 C Rousset 15:37.