Win for Tracy Barlow at the First Met League

Once again the first Met League at Claybury Park in Woodford was held on a beautifully warm October day, and we were fortunate that the storms that appeared later in the evening missed the racing completely. Not as dusty as in some years, the lumps and bumps along the grassy paths nonetheless presented a challenge for the unwary.

There was a record turnout of 472 finishers for the men, making the two or three bottlenecks quite a challenge on the first lap, although the first short lap for the ladies helped spread the 180 plus runners out before entering the woods.

The Valley saw an excellent turnout of runners for this first race, with 20 on the men’s team and 10 on the ladies team, and very many thanks to all who joined in to run. This sets us up nicely for the next Met League race at Stevenage on Saturday November 12th.

Tracy Barlow ran a brilliantly executed race, starting in the leading bunch, pacing nicely to pull into second place at the end of the first long lap, and closing fast on the leader, who then dropped out during the final lap giving Tracy a well-deserved victory. Alex Mundell followed in very well at 30th, with Lisa da Silva at 57 just two seconds ahead of Leanne Lyons at 58. Tri-athlete Jess Bass was running strong and comfortably to finish at 78, and fellow tri-athlete Lauren Morris 31 seconds later in 86th. Gemma Fairhurst on her debut cross country came in well at 130, with stalwart Kirstie Tew at 138, followed by veteran Barbara Maddison running well despite jet-lag at 143, rounded off by Christine Munden at 178. This set the ladies in a very good position at second in division 2, just 18 points behind London City, and a great start to the season. The B team finished 4th in Division 3, and the Veteran ladies 4th in Division 2 demonstrating the depth of the team taking part.

In the men’s race, Conor Kissane-Wood in his first Met League race for the Valley ran strongly for his highest ever finish at 23, followed by Manuel Caeiro having a very good race on his Valley debut at 80, just 3 places and 3 seconds ahead of Kieron Sexton, with veteran star Andrew Mitchell snapping at their heels at 88 and 9 seconds later. It was good to welcome 2 new Imperial athletes onto the men’s team, Will Jones running well made it into the top 100 at 96 and Fergus Johnson was inside the top 150 at 143, with Calum Nicol coming back into form to split the 2 Imperial men at 136. Manuel da Silva came in at 290, followed by U20 junior Joe Cooper at 302, who was chased to the finish by Hugo Dias making a welcome return to the Valley at 307. Next in was Christian Nielsen at 318, Scott Brewer finished at 323 just ahead of Richard Bell at 325. Regular warm-up coach Greg Bennett came in at 334, followed by Mervyn Walker at 368, who also supported his daughter in the junior races. Marathoner Peter Hill was at 382, who was also supporting his junior son earlier. David Ford came in at 399 just one second ahead of Bernie Robbins making a welcome return to the Met League. Simon Maddison worked hard at 456, just pulling ahead of Will Paynter at 460, having perhaps unwisely warmed up with the parkrun in the morning!

The men finished 5th in Division 2, 221 points behind the leaders, so not bad but with some work to do to pull into the promotion range. The Veteran men finished 6th in Division 2, and with 12th for the men in Division 3 reflects well on the depth of talent that took part on the day. Well done!

Phil has kindly worked through the numbers for the Met League Cup. It is a club competition based on age adjusted handicaps and points are scored for each race, with each runners best 4 out of 5 races for the season scored to decide the final points total. The mens and ladies winners both receive a trophy at the end of the season and medals go to the 2nd and 3rd place finishers. Tracy leads in the ladies, and Andrew Mitchell in the men, so it shows there is everything to play for and something to work at through the season.

1 Tracy Barlow  21:51; 30 Alex Mundell*  24:53; 57 Lisa da Silva  26:50; 58 Leanne Lyons  26:52; 78 Jess Bass  28:05; 86 Lauren Morris  28:36; 130 Gemma Fairhurst  31:25; 138 Kirstie Tew  32:13; 143 Barbara Maddison  32:45; 178 Christine Munden  38:51; 180 finishers.

Women’s Division 2: 2 TVH 271 pts

Women’s Division 3: 4 TVH ‘B’ 146 pts

Veteran Women’s Division 2: 4 TVH 58 pts

23 Conor Kissane-Wood  26:38; 80 Manuel Caeiro  28:54; 83 Kieron Sexton  28:57; 88 Andrew Mitchell  29:06; 96 Will Jones*  29:17; 136 Calum Nicol  30:21; 143 Fergus Johnson  30:32; 290 Manuel da Silva  34:34; 302 Joe Cooper  35:01; 307 Hugo Dias  35:13; 318 Christian Nielsen  35:30; 323 Scott Brewer  35:56; 325 Richard Bell  35:57; 334 Greg Bennett  36:13; 368 Mervyn Walker  37:37; 382 Peter Hill  38:09; 399 David Ford  39:01; 400 Bernard Robbins  39:02; 456 Simon Maddison  44:20; 460 Will Paynter  45:00; 472 finishers.

Men’s Division 2: 5 TVH 1004 pts

Men’s Division 3: 12 TVH ‘B’ 704 pts

Veteran Men’s Division 2: 6 TVH 200 pts

Met League Handicap

1      Tracy Barlow          21:50     10 pts
2      Alex Mundell          24:52     9
3      Lisa Da Silva         26:43     8
4      Barbara Maddison  26:46     7
5      Leanne Lyons        26:51     6
6      Jess Bass             27:36     5
7      Lauren Morris         27:59     4
8      Gemma Fairhurst    31:25     3
9      Kirstie Tew             32:08     2
10    Christine Munden    35:52     1

1      Andrew Mitchell          26:04     20 pts
2      Conor Kissane-Wood  26:37     19
3      Manuel Caeiro            28:54     18
4      Kieron Sexton            28:57     17
5      Will Jones                 29:16     16
6      Fergus Johnson         29:54     15
7      Calum Nicol               30:16     14
8      Mervyn Walker          31:03     13
9      Richard Bell              31:27     12
10    Greg Bennett             33:12     11
11    Christian Nielsen       33:18     10
12    Simon Maddison       33:28     9
13    Hugo Dias                33:47     8
14    Manuel Da Silva        33:50     7
15    Joe Cooper               33:52     6
16    David Ford                34:08     5
17    Peter Hill                  34:27     4
18    Bernie Robbins         34:42     3
19    Scott Brewer            35:51     2
20    Will Paynter             43:47     1