U13 Girls Top the Met League at Match 2

Thames Valley’s under 13 girls went top of the Metropolitan League on a very wet and windy course in Stevenage. With Ava White winning her second league race and eight other Valley girls taking part things look promising for the rest of the season.

The most improved run came from Olivia Colegrave who started sensibly and moved through the field to finish eighth. This was a big improvement on her 16^th place in the last match. Freja Schaap was just behind the leading group for the first kilometre but unfortunately dropped back to 25^th by the finish. She must have wondered what had happened when three team-mates came storming past with Lily Salkeld finishing 13^th and just beating Philippine Poupart-Lafarge and Melina Duer, 14^th and 15^th. Next home, Charlotte Cooney-Quinn in 36^th place didn’t like the weather and was down on her previous performance. But Sofia Panourgias improved this time with her 47^th place. Ava Weintraub was unfortunate to just be 11 years-old just before the race so she had to run an extra 1500m without any warning.

The under 11 boys and girls combined race saw Aaron Harewood again finish 10^th just in front of Kate Price, 16^th who was the third girl to finish. Lily Dafter was 23^rd and 6^th girl. The under 13 boys race only had Basil Rock who did well to finish 16^th and Hector Sheppard who was 43^rd.

With birthday celebrations and school races also at the weekend the under 15/17 girls team only had four TVH runners. Leading the Valley home, Verity Walker was well placed throughout and finished 16^th. Close behind were Alice Harray in 20^th and Olivia Olsher in 23^rd. Ashleigh Harewood had a brave run to finish 43^rd. We were also lacking in numbers in the boys 15/17 race with only one under 17, Jake Hooley, and two under 15s, Oliver Weintraub who ran well to beat Nicholas Duer by 18 places. Oliver was 8^th under 15 and Nicholas 22^nd.

Under 11 Boys and Girls 1500.

10 A Harewood 6:57; 16 (3) K Price 7:12; 23 (6) L Dafter 7:35.

Under 13 Boys 3000m. Team 17^th.

16 B Rock 14:28; 43 H Sheppard 15;29.

Under 13 Girls 1500. ‘A’ Team 1^st; ‘B’ Team 5^th.

1 A White 14:24; 8 O Colgrave 15:10; 13 L Salkeld 15:20; 14 P Poupart-Lafarge 15:25; 15 M Duer 15:26; 25 F Schaap 16:06; 36 C Cooney-Quinn 16:49; 47 S Panourgias 17:12; 51 A Weintraub 18:06.

Under 15/17 Boys 4000m. Team 11^th.

18 J Hooley 17:02; 40 (8) O Weintraub 17:50; 58 (22) N Duer 18:15.

Under 15/17 Women 4000m. Team 4^th.

16 V Walker 19:54; 20 A Harray 20:16; 23 O Olsher 20:35; 43 A Harewood 21:31.