Middlesex Cross Country Championships, Greenford Sat 5th January 2019

It was a fantastic day for TVH at the Middlesex County cross country championships at Greenford  on Saturday 5th January. Hugo Cayssials led the way in a great win for TVH men’s team and Steph Ainley helped the TVH women to 3rd place. There were great performances from our young athletes as well including a win for Molly McCormack in the U11 Girls race, 2nd place for Jasmine Palmer  in a close finish in the U15 Girls race, 3rd place for Sarah Kebbell in the U17 Women and a strong finish from Cameron McConnon getting up in to the medals for 3rd place in the U13 Boys race.         

Men’s race –  Hugo started well with Chris Smith in the leading group and held 5th place with Chris below his best but still finishing in the top ten.  Sayed Yusuf, James Ellis and Rob Collins worked together finishing 16th, 20th and 21st and making up the scoring 6, Daniel Garcia-Rasines gained 4 places in the second half of the race for 23rd place. Behind Daniel it was a great run for the first of our veteran age group runners Andrew Mitchell (50 later this year) in 33rd place ahead of Calum Nicol in 36th place. Next home was recent recruit Gordon Low (who is a couple of years older than Andrew) in 60th place ahead Todd Oates recovering from an illness in 68th followed by Manuel da Silva and Steve Norris (another M50) for the first 12 men home for the Valley.  In all TVH had 18 men in the 175 finishers.

Women’s race –  Stephanie Ainley overslept after working nights and had a late rush to make the start of the race but still ran very well to finish in 6th place. Laura Farrar and Maddie Turner were  competing in their first cross country races for 2 or 3  years and both ran well for 14th and 16th places. Team Manager Siana Jones finished 42nd  with the 4 to score team in 3rd place. 

Young Athletes races –  Under 11s;  Molly McCormack ran brilliantly to sprint to victory in a very close finish in the U11 Girls race, with Farrah Ceric 13th of 25 athletes.   Reggie Rock was below his best in 7th place in the U11 Boys race with Louis Moore not far behind in 12th place.

 U13 Boys –  Cameron McConnon finished very strongly to grab an individual medal in 3rd place with Max Bishop in 7th and Rory McConnon in 15th of 44 athletes the TVH team finished in 2nd place.

U13 Girls –  the team also finished in 2nd place led again by Anna Kelly in 6th place, Katerina Simakova not far behind in 8th and Thea Almquist-Dutton in 15th place ahead of Amelia Seaton and Sasha Mueller.         

 U15 Boys –  with over 50 boys in the race, Louis Hodge had a great run to finish 5th  with Charlie Rollo, Joseph Nixon, Basil Rock and Aidan Ferrand mid-way amongst the finishers.  

U15 Girls – another great run from Jasmine Palmer in 2nd place, with only Louis quicker amongst the TVH Boys on the same 4km course. Angel Acheampong ran well for 21st of 45 finishers ahead of Zenia Gordon and Lily Dafter.

U17 / U20 Women –   Sarah Kebbell was again at the front of the field in the 6km U17 / U20 race and finished strongly in 3rd place, with Charlotte Buckley and Melina Duer in 9th and 10th the U17 team finished 2nd. Rosie Vallance competed well finishing in 6th place in the U20 race, just ahead of Ariana and Niamh in the U17 race.

 U20 Men –  Edouard Long ran strongly for 4th place ahead of Jake Hooley (who ran a very fast 10km road pb of 33:29 four days earlier) and Max Buckley.

Full results at:  https://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=253145