YOUNG ATHLETES COMPETE AT THE MET LEAGUE, MATCH 4
After hearing the weather forecast it was very gratifying that so many Valley young athletes turned up in force to represent the club in the fourth league match of the season at Perivale. With four team races being run it was pleasing that we had complete teams in three of them. The day started with the under 11 boys and girls running together in a 1200m race. These are experimental races and no team positions were counted. With two girls and one boy representing the club they all coped very well with the muddy and windy conditions. First home was Kate Price in a very good 15th place being the 5th girl to finish. Behind her Lily Dafter was 25th, 8th girl, beating Felix Schaap who was having his first ever race.
Unfortunately we are short of under 13 boys and only had two runners. This time Basil Rock finished 15th gaining revenge on clubmate Guy Kay who beat him the previous week. The under 13 girls also had a good day with Philippine Pourpart- Lafarge leading the team home in 17th place. Closely followed by Freja Schaap in 19th place, then Zakia Mossi brought the team home 5th with her 22nd place. Charlotte Cooney-Quinn was again just behind her, finishing 26th out of 37.
With a stronger team out than expected it was good to see the boys u15/17 team finish in 3rd place out of 21 teams. First Valley home was Lucillo Burrell in fifth place overall and first under 15 in the race. Abraham Mendes Da Costa had his best race of the season when finishing 11th. With Jake Hooley also running well for 20th place it was Louis Medd who brought the scoring team home in 28th position. 800m runner Cassius Rathbone came out to support the team and was happy with his 37th place. Having a much better run than last week, Oliver Weintraub, 41st, just beat Nicholas Duer on the run-in.
With the under 15/17 girls team depleted due to a school race it was again a Valley team with just the three scorers competing for the club. Eve Goodhart finished seventh but was upset that she was beaten by a girl who she’d beaten in the County Championships the week before. An enthusiastic Rosie Vallance revelled in the mud and finished very strongly in 11th place. Having a growing spurt, Iona Pernthaller has not competed recently but when asked, she came out to make up the team and was pleased to finish 13th and bring the team home 4th. Although the team has dropped to second place in the league, they are only 29 points behind Shaftesbury for the final race which will be at home on Wormwood Scrubs on February 7th.
Results.
Under 11 Boys and Girls 1200m.
15 (5th girl) K Price 9:12; 25 (8th) L Dafter 9:50; 40 (23B) F Schaap 12:18
Under 13 Boys 3000m. Team 8th (16 finish)
15 B Rock 12:38; 19 G Kaye 12:51
Under 13 Girls 3000m. Team 5th (16)
17 P Pourpart-Lafarge 14:02; 19 F Schaap 14:06; 22 Z Mossi 14:36; 26 C Cooney-Quinn 15:09
Under 15/17 Boys 4000m. Team 3rd (21)
5 (1st u15) L Burrell 13:27; 11 A Mendes Da Costa 13:47; 20 (7) J Hooley 14:09; 28 (9) L Medd 14:30; 37 C Rathbone 15:05; 41 (17) O Weintraub 15:18; 44 (19) N Duer 15:21
Under 15/17 Girls 4000m. Team 4th. (17)
7 E Goodhart 16:18; 11 (7th u15) R Vallance 16:36; 13 (8) I Pernthaller 16:44