Met League 2, Trent Park: Young Athletes
Following the heavy rain during the week, the Trent Park course was, as expected, heavy going in places with areas of slippery mud especially at the bottom of the arduous finishing hill. It was an object lesson in being prepared by having the right length spikes and several of our juniors gained valuable experience in this respect. Despite plenty of slips and a few falls, our young athletes produced further fine team results across all age groups with the U17W team finishing first and our other teams each in 2nd place on the day but collectively retaining the overall lead in the Howard Williams Trophy despite strong showings from Shaftesbury Barnet and Enfield & Haringey.
Arguably the best individual result was 14 year old Amelia Barrett’s 3rd place in the U17W race, running against girls up to three years older. At the end she was 17 seconds down on her teammate, 2nd placed Lauren McGregor, who ran despite feeling ill for most of the week. However, we also had another nine runners finishing in single figure places across the junior races and they were well supported by teammates further back.
The first to really prosper in the conditions was Canaan Solomon (one of our fallers) who finished 2nd in the U13B race, half a minute ahead of Daniel Rowden in 3rd - both of them behind a very strong looking Jamie Dee from Herts Phoenix. Daniel (who had raced the night before in the 10 out of 10 event at Lee Valley) confessed to needing longer spikes but produced another strong run in the circumstances. Further back, diminutive Harry Cavell (24th) ran well, secure in the knowledge that he’ll have another couple of years in the age group.
Our best placing of the day was Alicia McArdell’s fine win in the U13G event, running a sensible tactical race by letting Enfield’s Despina Aslam do the bulk of the front running before overtaking her on the final bend before the finishing hill and coming home 9 seconds clear. She was well supported by Sky Mulvey in 5th, Jodie Ratcliffe in 7th and Rosie Poole in 11th as they ended up 4 points adrift of a strong Enfield team (who closed 4 in 9 to our 4 in 11) but are still top of the league. We didn’t quite have enough for a full B team but Saffron Earl (21st), Kathrine Myers (27th and who had raced in the English Schools Cup in the morning) and Niamh Bartlett (31st) all finished well.
Behind Lauren and Amelia in the U17W race, Isobel Moss had another good showing for 9th with new signing Jay Andrews a couple of places and 9 seconds behind. This time, their team score was good enough for first place on the day and they sit a mere 5 points behind league leaders Shaftesbury. Lauren Freeman (a team manager at the 10 out of 10 the night before) finished 23rd in a closely knit string of 9 runners and Stephanie Smith typified the do-or-die team spirit by outsprinting a Thames Valley runner in the last 30 metres.
Our U17M also had a good day, completing full A and B teams with Liam Blaikie showing a welcome Met League return for a 4th place with James Stockings 6 seconds down in 5th. Chris Sear, after an absence of a year, looked like he enjoyed his 8th place; Ryan Dunne completed the A team scoring in 15th but Shaftesbury’s 4 in 13 won the day. Perry Rowan (19th), Sean Kenny (23rd), Sam Benge (26th) and Elliott Joseph (32nd) made up our B team in the field of 58 runners.
After coming out on top at Claybury, we have slim leads in three of the four junior league tables and are narrowly 2nd in the fourth; with Enfield, Shaftesbury and Herts Phoenix all close behind, we will need to maximise our turnout to ensure we don’t let these positions slip. With winter conditions just around the corner, it will be no time for the faint-hearted, so dust off the 12 and 15mm spikes and the extra layers and join us on the coach for the Stevenage fixture on 18th December.