Middlesex Medals for TVH Young Athletes
The Middlesex County Cross Country Championships were held at Thames Valley’s home course on Wormwood Scrubs. Luckily the rain held off but underfoot was very wet and all the runners came home covered in mud including the 30 TVH participants.
Our best result came in the Under 17 Women’s Race which was won by India Weir followed home by sister Kosana in second place. Olivia Olsher was in 10th place at the half-way point just behind Alice Harray. Alice was not very well and had to drop out on the second lap. Another casualty was Verity Walker who was unable to make the start line. They won the team race by a massive 28 points and still had Rosie Vallance in 12th place as a back-up.
The Valley Under 13 Girls also won gold medals although the opposition was much stronger. Ava White was up against some very strong opposition from South of the Thames clubs Blackheath and Belgrave. But she still managed to beat her local rival, Ava Mulvilill from Highgate. Perhaps the best performance came from Kate Price who has just qualifled for this race by becoming 11 in December. She was just beaten by Melina Duer who was a magnificent fifth. The unfortunate athlete was Lily Salkeld who just missed out on a gold medal in seventh place. In 13th place, Plilippine Poupart-Lafarge didn’t quite get up to the group of Valley girls and Olivia Colegrave gained a lot of experience from her run. With nine other girls in the race it was good to have such a large showing from TVH.
After winning the under 15 girls trophy for the past three years it was disappointing to have to relinquish it to Highgate. But the team’s second place was still a great achievement. Charlotte Buckley was off colour at the Tuesday training session and for the second year she did not have a good race. Even so, her eighth place was just good enough to beat Margaux Couffon who did really well to finish ninth. Rose Barkle also had to miss training recently but came out to help the team with her 25th place. Also just missing a medal, Helena Findlater had one of her best runs to finish just behind her.
On finding that their race was 6000m our two competitors went several shades whiter. After their holiday they then had to face the course which had been churned up by the previous races. They both ran sensibly for their position especially Karim Mahiddine who was having his first outing of the winter. It was good to have a full under 15 boys team in their race. Once again Oliver Weintraub showed that he has it in him to do well with his 11th place. Nicholas Duer also ran well for his 14th position. Showing that he also has natural ability, George Goodhart was a good 17th. Unfortunately their team finished fourth, just outside the medals. The under 13 boys were also fourth in their race. Led home by Basil Rock in ninth place our next runner was Alfie Turner who also has just turned 11. Third scorer was Aidan Ferrand in 26th place. After a lean season in this age group it was good to have another five boys in the team.
This is the first time that the county have had under 11 boys and girls races. They proved a great success with 31 boys and 26 girls racing over 1500m. The Valley had five boys all enjoying the experience and four girls, some had never raced before.
U11 Boys 1500m
4 M Baumark 6:55; 11 M Rock 7:23; 13 C Rollo 7:35; 18 B Moon 7:57
U11 Girls 1500m
6 O Sparks 8:07; 7 M Salkeld 8:14; 22 S Reid 9:12; 23 E Huber 9:13
U13 Boys 3000m. Team 4th
9 B Rock 13:21; 17 A Turner 13:59; 26 A Ferrand 14:22; 34 H Sheppard 14:34; 48 W Fradgerly 15:45; 50 O Huber 16:12;52 J Gunn 16:37; 59 N Mahmoud 17:25
U13 Girls 3000m. Team 1st
3 A White 13:52; 5 M Duer 14:20; 6 K Price 14:21; 7 L Salkeld 14:36; 13 P Poupart-Lafarge 14:51; 22 O Colegrave 15:28; 29 C Cooney-Quinn 15:51; 33 F Schaap 16:11; 34 Cap Rousett 16:12; 40 S Stingelin 16:37; 41 L Vallance 16:37; 43 N Murphy 16:50; 48 Cam Rousett 19:19
U15 Boys 4000m. Team 4th
11 O Weintraub 14:51; 14 N Duer 15:13; 17 G Goodhart 15:41; 27 F Watson 16:23; 29 G Kaye 16:36
Under 15 Girls. 4000m. Team 2nd
8 C Buckley 16:09; 9 M Couffon 16:12; 25 R Barkle 17:46; 26 H Findlater 17:52; 35 A Alonso-Bizzi 20:09
Under 17 Men. 6000m.
8 L Burrell 25:32; 15 K Mahiddine 26:24
Under 17 Women 5000m. Team 1st
1 I Weir 20:29; 2 K Weir 20:38; 9 O Olsher 22:51; 12 R Vallane 23:46