Great finish to season from TVH young athletes.
The fifth fixture of the season saw the North West London young Athletes League complete its 50th year of competition. Held at Wormwood Scrubs on a very cold day it was good to see so many children taking part in this league. The first race was the under 11 girls race and the Valley had first girl home and also won the team race. Kate Price was the winner in this her last race before moving up to the under 13’s next season. Lily Dafter also had a great run to finish fourth and received a medal for being sixth leading individual points scorer for the season. Having her first cross country race, Shikra Kafero-Roberts ran really well to finish eighth and help the team win the race by two points. In 20th place, Mabel Salkeld had a good result as did Camille Rousset, 32nd who had six girls behind her.
The under 13 girls were also successful in winning the league title and Melina Duer won the trophy as the highest points scorer of the season. She finished second in this race and has improved greatly throughout the winter. Also having her best result of the season, Lily Salkeld finished fifth. In eighth place, Charlotte Cooney-Quinn also won a medal for her fifth best total of points for the season. The nicest surprise was Niamh Murphy having her best run when finishing sixth. Olivia Colegrave was 10th and would have preferred a longer race and found the course too short for her liking.
Amelia Casey was also well up at the front in the under 15 girls race and only missed second place by two seconds. Noushka Summerfield also was unlucky to miss 12th place by one second. In the men’s race there was only one winner right from the start. Lucillo Burrell went straight into the lead and moved away from the opposition to win by 43 seconds.
The largest race of the day was the under 11 boys race with 61 finishers. Unfortunately they had the worst weather of the afternoon and finished in a shower of sleet. This did not stop Alfie Turner from having another fine run to finish second. He also won a medal for second place overall in the league. Also improving throughout the season, Charlie Rollo did well for 14th place. Ben Moon was just ahead of Morris Rock by five places. In the under 13 boys race, Basil Rock was another one who saved his best till last. His second place was easily his best run of the winter. Aidan Ferrand was our other runner and finished 21st. Nicholas Duer finished in fifth place in the under 15 race and was rewarded for his season efforts by winning second place overall medal. Louis Medd has been injured for most of the winter but came out and finished a good third.
Under 11 Girls.Team 1st.
1 K Price 4:44; 4 L Dafter 4:58; 8 S Kafero-Roberts 5:14; 20 M Salkeld 5:38; 31 C Rousset 6:03.
Under 11 Boys. Team 5th.
2 A Turner 7:54; 14 C Rollo 8:22; 32 B Moon 8:50; 37 M Rock 8:54;47 S Inglis 9:12; 59 F Schaap 11:17.
Under 13 Girls. Team 1st.
2 M Duer 8:13; 5 L Salkeld 8:23; 6 N Murphy 8:33; 8 C Cooney-Quinn 8:34; 11 O Colegrave 8:43; 16 C Rousset 9:14; 19 E Power 9:51; 22 E Russell 13:00; 23 L Jarvis 13:00.
Under 13 Boys.
2 B Rock 10:40; 21 A Ferrand 11:38.
Under 15 Girls.
3 A Casey 11:26; 13 N Summerfield 12:49.
Under 15 Boys.
3 L Medd 15:47; 5 N Duer 15:53.
Under 17 Men.
1 L Burrell 17:28.