Perivale Met League: Young Athletes
For the last Met League fixture of the season, our Young Athlete contingents from Harlow and Woodford converged at Perivale to tackle the course on the edge of Horsenden Hill. The going was much less muddy and waterlogged than in past years and the uphill sections proved much easier to negotiate than usual. As a consequence, this year’s races were won in significantly faster times than last year’s. Our numbers were depleted by a mix of half term commitments, injury and fixture congestion, so only 11 of athletes made the start line but this also seemed the case for other teams as the field sizes were marginally smaller this year.
The U13Boys showed the way with Perry Rowan storming to a fine 4th place behind some strong Herts and Hillingdon runners. Daniel Rowden came home in 9th place, this week separated from Perry by 18 seconds but with the pair having raced 3 times in the past 8 days, it was a fine performance from both. For the U13Girls, Amelia Barrett also managed a 4th place, 34 seconds behind winner Kilip (St Marys). Alicia McArdell was close behind in 6th, 24 seconds adrift of Amelia but team mate Sky Mulvey, still suffering the effects of a chest infection, was forced to retire (only 18 finishers in this race).
U15B Ryan Dunne impressed amongst the U17s to claim 14th place, 54 seconds behind winner J Gill (Newham) whilst team-mate Sam Benge (31st), having started brightly, was forced to stick grimly to his task when afflicted by calf cramp but he gamely completed the race. Our U15s also shone amongst the U17W field and our team showed good packing with Holly Bedeau first home (10th), followed closely by Isobel Moss (11th), U17 Lauren Freeman (12th) and Stephanie Smith (16th).
Overall, we never managed to put sufficient runners on the start line this season to challenge for league positions in any of the age groups with the exception of the U17W where our team finished in 2nd place to St Marys with a small deficit of 36 points and with 27 points in hand over Herts Phoenix. Both U13 teams finished 4th in their leagues whilst the U17M finished in 6th.