Two Winning Teams and One Second in NW London League, Trent Park.
Although Kate Price was our only winner at Cockfosters, there were many other good performances. Starting with Skye Bishop our only runner in the under 11 girl’s race doing very well against older girls to finish sixth out of 42. Then Reginald Rock, also a nine-year old, had a great run to finish fifth in the under 11 boys race. Ollie Seraj, another nine-y-o, did well to finish 24th with 42 finishers..
Then came Kate Price in the under 13 race. Running with the under 11 boys, not only was she the first girl, she also beat all the boys except one. Close behind her Charlotte Edge was a very good seventh. Next home, Zenia Nelson ran a lot better than last time out to finish ninth. The team were only two points behind winners Highgate. Mabel Salkeld also improved with her 26th place out of 40.
The under 13 boys were unfortunate to be one short of a full team so were awarded seventh place. With Max Bishop having his best race this winter in eighth place and Sol Inglis also a well placed 12th it was a pity that we were short of boys. Jifar Ahmed did his best to finish 39th but we needed one more taking part.
The girls only needed three to score and Melina Duer who lost a shoe on the course was not one of them! The winning team had Olivia Colegrave making up for her disastrous day at Parliament Fields (her training shoes went missing) having her best run for a long time when finishing fifth. Niamh Murphy was very close behind in seventh place and Philippine Poupart-Lafarge was last scorer in 11th position. She just held off Melina who got back up to 12th place. Lilly Salkeld is working hard to get back to form and her 17th place out of 33 was very encouraging.
After winning the last U15 Boys NWL at Kingsbury, Abdikafi Abdi took the early lead from two promising boys from Hillingdon. Up the last hill they broke away to finish first and second and Abdi then faded to fourth place. Shami Umashankar also paid for his fast start but dug in and finished nineth just ahead of Basil Rock who ran a steady race for 11th place. Baqer Abameacha who prefers shorter races also ran well. He started slowly and moved up through the field to finish 23rd out of 44. With Hillingdon one and two it was great that the Valley won the team race.
U11 Girls. Team 11th
6 S Bishop 8:13.
U11 Boys. Team 7th
5 R Rock 11:53; 24 O Serji 13:37
U13 Girls. Team 2nd
1 K Price 11:05; 7 C Edge 12:01; 9 Z Gordon 12:08;26 m Salkeld 13:48
U13 Boys. Team 7th
8 M Bishop 13:25; 12 S Inglis 13:35; 39 J Ahmed 15:49
U15 Girls. Team 1st
5 O Colegrave 13:57; 7 N Murphy 13:59; 11 P Poupart-Lafarge 14:18; 12 M Duer 14:19; 17 L Salkeld 15:13
U15 Boys. Team 1st
4 A Abdi 16:34; 9 S Umanshakar 13:02; 11 B Rock 17:16; 23 B Abamecha 18:44