Middlesex Championships – TVH start the day by winning Under 11 Boys race and second in under 11 Girls race
A great start for the Valley parents as they watched our young athletes start the day on a high note. With three of our top boys unable to take part we still had great performances from the rest of the team. This time Henry Turner managed to beat Reginald Rock for the first time this season, if only by one second, for his fourth place. Reg gave him a good race for his victory but there are still three races to go. Conrad Mathews improved on his performance from the County race the previous week with his 11th place. Although the course was quite dry Ollie Seraj managed to lose a shoe in a muddy patch but still did well to finish 21st. Dylan Bilboul was just behind him, also having a better run than last week with his 28th place.
The under 11 girls race had a similar pattern with Skye Bishop just beating Skyla Robertson into fifth place. This was her best place this season. With Amelia Seaton close behind in eighth place it took a very good Highgate team to beat them. Newcomer Katerina Simavova also showed lots of promise with her 12th place. Unfortunately Anna Kelly had bad ‘stitch’ and gamely struggled home in 39th place, just behind Emmerling Low.
Our worst event of the day was the under 13 boys event where only three boys were able to make the start line. Morris Rock ran well for his 25th place. After football training all morning Sol Inglis was well below his best in 37th place. Jifar Ahmed had a steady run to finish 61 with six behind him.
Another great second place for the under 13 girls. Charlotte Edge and Lily Dafter right up at the front with fourth and fifth places. Another pair came in 18th, Zenia Girdon, and 19th, Olivia Sparks. Very good positions out of 47 runners.
In the under 15/17 Boys race TVH also had a great team result with third place. Abdikafi Abdi almost had a boxing match with a rival who tried to intimidate him. This spurred him on to beat him and 12th place was his reward. He was the seventh under 15 to finish. Showing how good the competition was, Shami Umashankar had a good race and was 22nd. Having his first Met League of the season, Nicholas Duer knew he should be close to his training partner and this spurred him on to 26th place. Basil Rock was our fourth scorer in 36th place. Telling Baqar Abamecha he should be making more effort and should be near Nelson Gordon, he proved me right as he passed three rivals in the finishing strait to finish one place behind him in 43rd place. An unfit Aidan Ferrand struggled round for 66th place out of 72 in the race.
With three under 17 Women in the race it was not left to the under 15s to represent us. First home, Malina Duer was 19th and Olivia Colegrave, our youngest runner in this race, 26th. Amelia Casey was making up for being unavailable the previous week was our third scorer but was disappointed that some girls she usually beats were in front of her. Next home, Philippine Poupart-Lafarge, had a much better run than the week before and just beat u17 Arianana Alonso-Bizzi by one place. Capucine Rousset and Lilly Cheshire were another pair in 39th and 40th places. Lily was very unfit but she still had 20 athletes behind her. The team finished 5th.
Under 11 Boys 1500m. Team 1st.
4 H Turner 6:18; 5 R Rock 6:19; 11 C Mathews 6:44; 21 Olli Seraj 7:18; 28 D Bilboul 7:40. 38 Finish.
Under 11 Girls 1500m. Team 2nd.
5 S Bishop 6:33; 5 S Robertson 6:19; 8 A Seaton 6:42; 12 K Simavova 6:53; 38 E Low 7:53; 39 A Kelly 7:58. 52 Finish.
Under 13 Boys 3000m. Team 14th.
25 M Rock 13:23; 37 S Inglis 13:48; 61 J Ahmed 15:50. 67 Finish.
Under 13 Girls 3000m. Team 2nd.
4 C Edge 13:24; 5 L Dafter 13:27; 18 Z Gordon 14:14; 19 O Sparks 14:22. 47 Finish.
Under 15/17 Boys 4000m. Team 3rd.
12 A Abdi 14:45; 22 S Umashankar 15:05; 26 N Duer 15:13; 36 B Rock B Rock 15:48; 42 N Gordon 16:21; 43 B Abamecha 16:25; 66 A Ferrand 17:59. 72 Finish.
Under15/17 Girls 4000m. Team 5th.
19 M Duer 17:13; 26 O Colegrave 17:42; 30 A Casey 18:07; 34 P Poupart-Lafarge 18:20; 35 A Alonso-Bizzi 18:23; 39 C Rousset 18:41; 40 L Cheshire 18:58. 60 Finish.