Young Athletes at the South of England XC Champs’

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Parliament Hill Fields was back to its testing best for the South of England Championships; cold, windy, muddy and (of course) hilly,  it was altogether much tougher conditions than for the shorter races at the London Youth Games in November.

John Husbands reports:

Arriving for the races the first obstacle for our athletes and supporters was to wade through the sea of mud surrounding the bandstand to collect their race numbers and timing chips.  Very cosy it was too, with the Saturday morning martial arts group sharing their space with TVH, Shaftesbury Barnet and Reading AC. We had 25 young athletes competing on the day, with 15 taking part in the 3km Under 13 age group races.  Special mention in this group must go to our three youngest athletes taking part –  Kate Price, Lily Dafter and Alfie Turner who have all run a mixture of under 11 and under 13 races this winter and who all ran extremely well at Parliament Hill.  Other TVH athletes who ran particularly well in the tough conditions included Margaux, Olivia, Basil and  Melina.

India Weir was our highest finisher on the day in the U17 Women’s race, a steady run for India as she had been suffering with illness during the previous week.  Ava White also finished in the top 50 in the U13 Girls race, despite having a tough time, falling twice during the race. Ava was closely followed by Kate, Melina and Lily D making up our highest team position of 15th, from an impressive TVH turnout of 10 U13 girls.   Verity, Philippine, and Noor unfortunately dropped out of their races before the finish due to illness or struggling with the conditions.

South of England Cross Country Championships, Parliament Hill Fields, Saturday 30th January 2016  – Young Athletes Results

U13 Girls  3km-   48  Ava White  14:03,  84 Kate Price 14:21,   104 Melina Duer 14:33,  135 Lily Dafter 14:55,  152 Lily Salkeld 15:08, 178 Freja Schaap 15:25, 221 Zakia Mossi 16:08, 223 Charlie Cooney-Quinn 16:10, 254 Niamh Murphy 17:05.   Team 15th.

U13 Boys  3km –   112 Basil Rock 13:31,  145 Alfie Turner 13:59,  221 Hector Sheppard 15:11, 264 Jude Gunn 16:55  Team 25th.

U15 Girls  4km –  71 Margaux Couffon 19.44,  82 Charlotte Buckley 19:53,  159 Rose Barkle 21:36,  191 Helena Findlater 22:20   Team 21st.

U15 Boys 4km –   204 Nicholas Duer 20:20, 214 Louis Medd 20:38.

U17 Women 5km  –  33 India Weir 22:29,  56 Olivia Olsher 23:39,  102 Rosie Vallance 25:11.

U17 Men 6km –  95 Lucillo Burrell  23:37.