Young Athletes at Parliament Hill
With few competition opportunities since December, the South of England Championships marked a welcome return to racing for our young athletes. The cold, overnight snap meant that the early races had to negotiate frozen ground with the risk of turning an ankle ever present for the competitors. Runners in the later races experienced the traditional nature of Parliament Hill; plenty of cloying, boggy ground and sloppy mud.
Pride of the young athlete results must go to the U20 Men, who won a bronze team medal with defending champion, Ronnie Sparke this year just out of the individual medals in 4th place, 22 seconds adrift of winner Daniel Clorley (Luton AC). It was a fine performance from Ronnie, this being his comeback race after missing six months through injury.
He stuck with a small group of five runners which spent most of the race chasing early leader Mehretab Solomon (London Heathside) who took the lead coming up the short rise at the back of Kite Hill for the first time. The group then had to spend most of the race giving chase before making contact at the north end of the second lap and then splintering as Clorley and Hay passed Solomon leaving Ronnie 8 seconds off the bronze medallist. Second Woodford runner home was Omar Mansour (20th) followed by Alex Cornwell (35th). The fourth scoring spot was hotly contested by Gavin Lewis and Darren Southcott with Darren eventually prevailing in 48th, 7 seconds and 2 places up from Gavin.The other notable high placings were Georgie-Lou Sales, 7th in U20W and James Stockings’ 11th place in the U15B race; an excellent result in the largest young athlete field of the day (228 finishers). This year, the U20W race was run separately from the U17W and small field of only 50 starters looked as if they were seeking comfort by huddling together as they came up Kite Hill from the wide starting section. Georgie-Lou recovered from a headlong tumble over a tree root but lost a place as consequence; Rebecca Oatham (45th), was our only other finisher in this race.
Otherwise, a mix of injury and illness together with a few DNFs reduced the number of Woodford vests crossing the finishing line; besides the U20M, only the U17W managed to complete a scoring team. Here, Sidnie Sales led the team home in 30th with Claudia Conway in 66th and Kate Stockings in 99th. Lauren Freeman was not far behind Kate in 109th.
Despite the late withdrawals, it was very pleasing to see some of our newer members having the courage to take part in a major championship. In the U13B, Daniel Rowden and Perry Rowan ran together for most of the race, swapping positions regularly as one then the other got the upper hand. At the line, it was Daniel who got his ankle across the line before Perry for 103rd place with Perry in104th although they were both credited with the same time; both just in the top half of the finishers.
New member, Alicia McArdell, sporting an oversized vest, came 131st in the U13G race with team-mate Billie Bradley, 151st of the 219 finishers. Stephanie Smith (164th) again showed her usual determination and was our only finisher in the U15G. whilst Ryan Dunne (73rd) and Sean Kenny(208th) also completed the U15B race.
With the cancellation of the Essex Championships we incorporated our club championships with the Southerns instead and medals (which will be presented on Tuesday 2nd February at the YA Awards event) were won as follows:
Category Gold medal Silver medal Bronze medal
U20 Men Ronnie Sparke Omar Mansour Alex Cornwell
U20 Women Georgie-Lou Sales Rebecca Oatham -
U17 Men - - -
U17 Women Sidnie Sales Claudia Conway Kate Stockings
U15 Boys James Stockings Ryan Dunne Sean Kenny
U15 Girls Stephanie Smith - -
U13 Boys Daniel Rowden Perry Rowan -
U13 Girls Alicia McArdell Billie Bradley -