TVH Girls Win the First Two races of the NW London YA League 2016/2017
Getting the season off to a flying start TVH girls won the first two races of the day.
Winning the first race of the day, Sasha Mueller gave an impressive performance in the under 11 girls race and came out a comfortable winner. She led almost from the start of the race and this was her first win in Valley colours. Previously she had finished second in the Middlesex Road Race Championships. With strong back-up from Olivia Sparks, 5th, and Sasha Reid, 11th, they won the team race by 10 points from Cookham.
A great win in the under 13 girls race by Zakia Mossi saw her beat County CC Champion Lydia Louw of Hillingdon by six seconds. This may be the first time that she has beaten her. Another great run by Lily Dafter who is at the lower end of the age group had her finish in ninth place. Oliver Colegrave in 15th place brought the team home in second place with Cookham winning by just four points. A lovely surprise was Aramay Robertson having her first cross country race, finishing one place behind Olivia. This helped the ‘B’ team finish in 11th place out of 16. Camille Rousset was 37th and Charlotte Mackinnon, having her first race, 40th.
The under 11 boys ran the same distance as the under 13 girls and Zakia beat them all. Our first boy home was Sol Inglis in 13th place and Oliver Hill, son of TVH athlete Peter, was having his first race and finished a commendable 43rd.
Our under 15 girls also won their team race with half the number of points of the second team. Melina Duer lost out on first place by three seconds and Freyer Schaap showed that her good run of last week was no fluke when she finished fourth. Lily Salkeld just got piped on the line to finish sixth. Having knee injury recently this was Niamh Murphy’s first race for a while and was pleased with 10th. Another to show a great improvement was Capucine Rousset and her 16th place showed good progress. Charlotte Cooney-Quinn was just behind her and TVH ‘B’ team finished fourth.
The best contest of the day was the under 13 boys race between Basil Rock and R. McGonaghie of London Heathside. They battled it out for the whole race and Basil just lost out by one second. In 20th place, Alfie Turner had to fight hard for his position. Charlie Rollo was 27th, just below half-way down the field. Noor Eldin Mahmoud made up the team with his 46th place. The team finished fifth out of 13 teams.
With only Sam Vickers in the under 15 race the team were inevitably last. At least he seemed to enjoy it and had a few athletes behind him. In the under 17 men’s race an unusually large number took part. Louis Medd in 12th place knew that Nicholas Duer was chasing him throughout and managed to beat him by 17 seconds.
Under 11 Girls 1200m. 1 S Mueller 5:48; 5 O Sparks 6:16; 11 S Reid 6:42. Team 1st.
Under 11 Boys 1600m. 13 S Inglis 7:47; 42 O Hill 9:48. Team 9th.
Under 13 Girls 1600m. 1 Z Mossi 7:12; 9 L Dafter 7:40; 15 O. Colegrave 7:49; 16 A Robertson 7:55; 37 C Rousset 9:29; 40 C Mackinnon 10:06. ‘A’ Team 2nd; ‘B’ Team 11th.
Under 13 Boys 2200m. 2 B Rock 10:33; 20 A Turner11:23; 27 C Rollo 11:54; 46 N Mahmoud 13:21. Team 5th
Under 15 Girls 2200m. 2 M Duer 11:33; 4 F Schaap 11:53; 6 L Salkeld 11:57; 10 N Murphy 12:18; 16 C Rousset 12:52; 19 C Cooney-Quinn 13:04. Team ‘A’ 1st; Team ‘B’ 4th.
Under 15 Boys 3000m.42 S Vickers 17:53.
Under 17 Men 4000m. 12 L Medd 16:39; 13 N Duer 16:56. Team 6th.