Chingford League CC: young athletes' races
With the attractions of half term holidays on offer, it was perhaps not a surprise that a number of our regulars were not present at Loughton on Saturday afternoon. The ground was still pretty firm round most of the course, the light morning showers making little impact on the terrain and with rain in the air, at least the herd of long horned cattle that had to be negotiated in the Roding Valley Park was lying down and was less daunting prospect.
A below par Liam Blaikie was still the pick of the Woodford bunch as he finished 2nd in the U15/17M race (2rd U17M) but complained afterwards that his legs just couldn’t respond to Orion’s Auberon Hall when he attacked round the meadows giving him a 20 second advantage at the finish. James Stockings again showed that he can mix it with the older age group as he finished 4th overall (1st U15B) and with a 40 second advantage over 7th place Paul Scanlan, getting some valuable endurance into his 800m-tuned legs. Sean Kenny also had a good run in his first cross country race for the club coming home as 8th U15B but confessing afterwards that it was beyond his usual distance (but therefore good experience).
For the U15/17W, Georgina Ferrari came home in 2nd place and was the first of the U15Gs to finish; she was well supported by Ellie Foster who was 5th (3rd U15G) and Kate Stockings in 6th place (3rd U17W) who felt that she’d had a reasonably good run.