TVH’s U13 and U15 Girls Dominate at Trent Park
The third round of North West London Young Athletes Cross Country races took place at Trent Country Park on an initially sunny, but increasingly colder afternoon. This being cross country, the race distances were very approximate and turned out to be a lot further than the previous North West London Young Athletes races. TVH had 18 young athletes competing, some enjoying the longer distances and tougher course, others finding it hard going.
John Husbands reports:
The under 11 Girls race was further than the previous race at Kingsbury, with the leaders taking 2 minutes longer and Sasha Mueller, who started well, found the final climb to the finish hard work and finished 3rd. Olivia Sparks started more cautiously and moved through strongly to finish well in 6th place.
In the second race the under 11 Boys and under 13 Girls ran together and Zakia Mossi was untroubled in the lead for a very comfortable victory, sprinting well clear at the finish.
Next to finish was Morris Rock, with one of his best runs in 6th place in a very competitive Boys race.
Lily Dafter had a solid run in 7th place, although a stitch prevented her usual sprint finish and Olivia Colegrave was one of our athletes preferring the longer race distance, finishing 8th, five places higher than in the previous race to bring the team home in 1st place. Mabel Salkeld and Camille Rousset also ran well over the longer distance with Mabel gradually improving with each race.
With the U13 Boys and U15 Girls racing together, Alfie Turner was our first athlete to finish for 5th place, much higher than the previous race and 40 seconds clear of the leading girls. Basil Rock and Lily Salkeld were unable to run due to injury and illness, but were there to support TVH and will hopefully be back for the home Met League fixture. Nelson Gordon ran his first cross country race for TVH, tough going in trainers and Noor will also start to move up the field as he gets back to fitness.
Melina and Philippine had another very close race, with Melina just holding on for 2nd place and Philippine in 3rd. With Niamh finishing in 6th place (two places higher than the previous race), the team finished well clear in 1st place. Capucine Rousset also ran well, finishing strongly ahead of Charlie.
We had two athletes in the U17 races – Amelia finishing in 5th place, one place higher than at Kingsbury on the longer course and Nicholas was again 8th with the U17 Men’s race a good mile further than the previous race.
NW London YA League, Trent Park, 26th November 2016
Under 11 Girls approx 1.4km: 3 S. Mueller 7:39; 6 O. Sparks 8:00
Under 11 Boys approx 2.45km: 6 M Rock 11:26
Under 13 Girls approx 2.45km: 1 Z. Mossi 10:54, 7 L. Dafter 11:29; 8 O. Colegrave 11:45;
33 M. Salkeld 13:41; 40 Camille Rousset 14:58 Team 1st
Under 13 Boys approx 3km: 5 A Turner 12:46; 38 N.Gordon 14:30; 48 N-E. Mahmoud 15.39
Under 15 Girls approx 3km: 2 M Duer 13:35; 3 P Poupart-Lafarge 13:36; 6 N Murphy 13:59;
15 Capucine Rousset 14:59, 22 C Cooney-Quinn 15:21 Team 1st
Under 17 Women approx 4.2km: 5 A. Casey 19:27
Under 17 Men approx 5.6km: 8 N Duer 24:16