TVH Girls Win Every Race at the first Met League
Even if slightly fortunate, Zakia Mossi won her first Metropolitan League race. With some confusion at the end of the race her closest rival ran towards the boys finish which led to Zakia being the first girl in her race. We like to think that Zakia would have won the sprint finish, anyway. This win followed up her NW London YA win two weeks previous. Following her in the Under 13 race, Lily Dafter was trying out different tactics of not starting too fast. This paid off as she finished a very good 12th. Mabel Salkeld 45th and Camille Rousset 49th were near the back of the race but their valuable points enabled TVH to finish 5th team out of 17.
The under 17 women’s race brought two of our best runners up against each other for the first time. Both leading at the end of the first lap Charlotte Buckley (u15) broke away half way round the second lap of their 4000m race and went on to win by 20 seconds. Kosana Weir (u17) held on to second place and was pleased to beat two girls who were faster than her in the recent Southern road relays. Melina Duer was 12th overall and 5th placed under 15. Philippine Poupart-Lafarge chased her all the race and her 15th place was rewarded with being 7th u15 and helping us win the team race by two points from Shaftesbury. It looks like we will have a tough battle to win the trophy especially as the next race at Stevenage clashes with schools cup events. We must not forget the ‘B’ team for their tremendous achievement in finishing 11th out of 20 teams. Lily Salkeld was well place in 28th place (17th u15) with Nimah Murphy also improving every race in 35th (21st u15). Another best performance came from Capucine Rousset who is now beginning to move up the field and she was 49th (29th u15) out of 65 runners.
For the TVH boys, all is not yet lost. With three under 11’s competing, Morris Rock had a great tussel with the Woodford Green local club who had the first five in the race. But Morris stuck with them and eventually finished eighth. Having his first run for the Valley, Henry Turner did very well to finish 18th. Our third runner, Oliver Hill finished 69th inthis ver large field of 63.
With only one under 13 boy available, due to half term, Basil Rock was disappointed with his 11th place but even so, it was a big improvement on last year. With no under 15 boys and only Oliver Weintraub in the 15/17 race this was also a disappointment for the Valley. He fought manfully and finished 22nd but it would have been nicer to have a team.
Under 11 Boys 1500m.
8 M Rock 5:52; 18 H Turner 6:10; 69 O Hill 7:39. Team 6th.
Under 13 Boys 3000m.
11 B Rock 11:45. Team 11th.
Under 13 Girls 3000m.
1 Z Mossi 11:59; 12 L Dafter 12:58; 45 M Salkeld 15:19; 49 C Rousset 16:05. Team 5th.
Under 15/17 Men. 4000m.
22 O Weintraub 15:53.
Under 15/17 Women 4000m.
1 C Buckley 11:53; 2 K Weir 12:13; 12 M Duer 17:24; 15 P Poupart-Lafarge 17:31. ‘A’ Team 1st.
28 L Salkeld 18:17; 35 N Murphy 18:44; 47 C Rousset 19:46. ‘B’ Team 11th.