ATW Met League Race 1: Men 1st, Women 2nd
Our senior teams got off to a strong start in the first race of this winter's Active Training World Metropolitan Cross Country League which we hosted at Claybury. Our men's A team were 1st in Division 1 and our women's A team 2nd in their Division 1, with the result that we lead the combined Howard Williams Trophy at this early stage. Our men's B team were 8th of the 10 teams in Division 1 and our women's B team 3rd in Division 2. Our men's C team were 3rd in Division 3. While Matt Gunby (5th) led the men home, U20 Liam Blaikie's 30th was particularly eye-catching, while U20 Sidnie Sales (6th) excelled in the women's race.
The Claybury course was slower than usual due to the large amount of rain that had fallen. The opening stretch of around 600m offered plenty of challenging mud and water, while the remaining grassy stretches were on the soft side in places.
ATW individual and divisional Results (click the Excel document)
Links to 4 videos of the race by Rob Cox
Men's A team
In the week prior to the event, an "outstanding" team had been whittled down to a "below-par" one, and Team Manager Terry McCarthy feared that we could suffer a nasty defeat in this opening fixture, especially with the introduction of prize money for the 7 most consistent league performers of the season, which seemed likely to lure quality athletes to the race. But his fears turned out to be unfounded as the field was, if anything, weaker than in recent times and some of his younger runners compensated for absent team-mates.
Once the race settled down, a breakaway group of 5 formed which included our Matt Gunby. Towards the end of the 2nd lap Newham's Peter Huck (1st claim to Barrow AC), Gunby's training partner for the past few weeks at Mile End, tightened the screw and Gunby slowly became detached. On the last of the 3 laps, Highgate's ex-GB man Ben Noad charged past Gunby, but he himself reeled in TVH's U20 Mohamed to stay 5th of the 337 finishers. Huck's winning time was 25.03 to Gunby's 25.28. Gunby will be hoping to close that gap next time out.
Martyn Cryer (9) was our next man for a long while, before being passed by U20 Ed Shepherd (7). Cryer's was a solid run as he, like many, found this sudden transltion from firm to soft ground a little odd. Shepherd was pleased with his run, working his way up to 7th after 2 laps and then lacking the strength to do more than consolidate. 8 seconds separated Shepherd and Cryer as the latter finished strongly. Shepherd took 2nd prize in the U20 competition.
Highgate Harriers had closed 6 men before our 4th man, Kevin Murphy, crossed the line in 22nd. But that sparked a rush in which we had 7 more finishers inside 36. Teacher Murphy was delighted with his result, due mainly to a good bank of training accumulated during the school holidays. 1.49 800m man Jordan Donnelly had flown back from Germany to take advantage of the UK's more competitive racing scene and was satisfied with 23rd after a stressful week at his job at Puma. And Angus Holford (24) showed signs that he could have a very good winter as he ran very well for 24th.
Darren Southcott's good 28th was a reward for training in a less gung-ho manner recently, and Bertie Powell (36) felt that this was his best-ever run in a Woodford vest because he has been so hampered recently by a heel spur which prevented him pushing off his right foot throughout the race. In-between these two, in his senior Met League debut, U20 James Stockings (33) got unlucky by first banging his head on a tree, then falling over twice. And U20 Liam Blaikie's 30th was the most pleasing run of the day, as he destroyed his previous Met League best of 79th after a month's serious training as a fresher at Birmingham University.
Our A team was closed by Gavin Lewis, who should be pleased with 44th after only resuming training 3 or 4 weeks ago; and Tom Beedell, who opted to "jog around" 6 days after finishing 3rd in the Liverpool Marathon, his debut marathon in which he ran 2hrs 34mins. Hopefully Beedell will not have done himself too much harm!
Meanwhile, Highgate's hopes dissolved a little as they waited to 86th for their 12th scorer. The final team scores showed: 1, WGEL 1161; 2, Highgate 1101. With 2 in the first 38, Serpentine's title aspirations look none too healthy as they totalled just 891. And, after closing 4 in 14, Shaftesbury's challenge never materialised as they finished 5th with 735.
So, as the team got off to a positive start in their attempt to capture their 5th consecutive league title, Manager McCarthy said, "This was a big result for us from what looked like a weak team on paper. And the exciting thing is that, of our scoring 12, only two - Murphy and Cryer - are older than 26. Things look pretty healthy." However, he warned against complacency, "Look - we were a bit lucky today. If Highgate had fielded any two of Dixon, Scott, Russell, Strain and Saqui, we could have been in trouble. Highgate will be dangerous this winter and we need to remain alert!"
Women's A team
With stretching but achievable objectives to win the Senior and retain the Vet titles this season, the girls have spent the summer revamping their team management and motivation, aiming to get the biggest and best Ladies team onto the start line at each and every fixture across the season. And so it was, thanks to this and the rallying calls of Race Day Captain Kat Gundersen up to race day, that an impressive and excitable team of 15 Woodettes lined up to hear 'Klaxon' Hollingworth's starting instructions in what must have been - at ~150 - one of the largest Women's fields ever.
As usual on this course the 6k race, which is one small and two large laps beginning with a short downhill sweep, began fast with Emily Moss, Sidnie and Georgie Sales and [Lauren McGregor] all up in front, tailed closely by Lauren Stewart and Kat Gundersen. As the girls got into the second lap the Sales sisters, giving a welcome boost to the team's front end, settled into a very competitive stride. Sidnie (6) a massive improvement on her 49th place last year, and 2nd U20 overall, was our first girl home followed 38 seconds later by sibling Georgie (12) working her way back to fitness from injury.
Immediately behind them things were not so rosy as by the middle of the first large lap, [McGregor (DNF)] had stopped and a distraught Moss (DNF) had pulled up in pain having again twisted her problematic ankle. With the girls' chances of closing 6 in 20 (and probably first place) denied, it was left to the trio of 'Springbok' Stewart (16) - mistress of composure, 'Gundo' Gundersen (17) - mistress of consistency, and Rachel Lund (20) - mistress of cool; an impressive break into the top twenty from the Senior who gets stronger by the race - all finishing within 6 seconds of each another to do everything they could to pack together to max the green & whites' points. It was another 1' 46" before the A Team was closed by classy V45 Linda Jackson (42) un-used, as a former winner of ML races, to finishing this far down the order - but making a very welcome and respectable return to the fold as she rediscovers her racing legs.
Despite losing two potentially high scorers along the way, the girls were delighted to end the day in second, a place higher than this time last year and with some classy performances. Gunning for victory come February, Race Day Captain Gundersen said: "A great start to the Met League yesterday, well done everybody!! Sidnie Sales led the Woodettes home with a fantastic run in 6th. The team finished 2nd, just losing out to Serpentine, but we're in contention. Bring on Stevenage!"
Men's B team
The B team's challenging objective is to again remain in Division 1. And this was a good start to the campaign. We had a few promising new lads looking to lay down a marker, and several old hands resuming their regular winter battles.
It was Louis Clark, recent winner of the Pembrokeshire Coastal Trail 16 mile race, who led the team home in a fine 70th in his first Met League race, though he was given the same time as the fast finishing Chris Symonds (71). Both men looked lean and ready to build on their good results. In 78th, Jim Roche also ran well as he approaches his 40th birthday in February, and he was just 16" away from Clark and Symonds. Roche had a terrific last lap in which he left behind Gareth Cavell (84), Ray Dzikowski (96) and Tim Ballard (98), with whom he had been trading places for two laps. This was Ballard's first run in our vest and first cross country, and he looks a good prospect, while M40 Cavell and M45 Dzikowski will have many more tussles this winter, including in the Essex Vets.
In 106, Tony Russell also debuted. Having recently quit semi-pro football, he has been training with us for 3 weeks and is a complete beginner, so this was extremely promising. 23" behind Russell came his Saturday training partner M55 Dave Cox, who was 14" behind the first M55. And right behind Cox was M45 Paul Major, looking fit as ever in his first club race since 2008.
There was great competition to see who would secure the remaining B team places. Sam Benge and CJ Shepherd went at it hammer and tongs. It was good to see Benge (142) pacing himself sensibly, and in the end he got the better not only of Shepherd (146) but also of Karim Ali (143), who had run well in last week's Chingford League race.
In the team result, the gaps were fairly large at the foot of the table. Ealing got off to a poor start with just 333 points, while we scored 464. The interesting result was Serpentine B who were just 7 points off last place with 340. Of course, B teams only start when A teams close, so Serpentine's B team will be reliant on their A team recovering their form of recent seasons.
Women's B team
With a general objective simply to field enough girls to make a regular B Team this season, the day boded well. It was Bernie Pritchett (46) 16" behind Jackson who led the Bs home. Also unused of late, like Jackson, to finishing outside of the top 20, stalwart V45 Pritchett has struggled for much of the summer to find her best racing form. But delighted to have found the strength to race at all just now she was philosophical about her performance and confident there was better to come. 1' 41" behind her, Maxine Davies (73), battling right to the line with a brilliant grimace, and making a promising improvement on last year's 'country' debut in 90th, was pleasantly surprised with her performance. On her heels V45 Sally Chapman (75), another welcome returnee to the League scored third. 21" later was fourth scorer V45 Jenny Thomas (82) admiring the strength of Chapman who she has been close to but never managed to beat too many times on this course, and 22" behind Thomas, V45 Alex 'Cake' Wardle (92) managing successfully to hold a pesky knee niggle at bay. Closing the B Team was their fifth V45 Karen Horswood (109) making a welcome return to green & white after several years managing the Met Police team. V40 Simone Panayi (125) "delighted to finish" closed the field for the Woodettes.
A fine result for our first complete B Team in a while leaves the women in third place overall behind Serpentine and Ealing Souhall & Middlesex in the 2nd Division; and relative strength in depth for our Vets places us joint first with Serpentine.
The Woodettes are delighted to be off the mark with such a strong showing. The girls are especially grateful to Evie Serventi and Andrea Possee for excellent support on the day; and others for great photography and shouting.
Brenda Bray Competition scores after two events are as follows: 1. Lauren Stewart (38); 2. Kat Gundersen (35); 3. Rachel Lund (33); =5. Jenny Thomas (25); =5. Alex Wardle (25).
Men's C team
It was great to see M45 Matt Flannelly (147) back racing after 3 years in the injury wilderness. Rugged as ever, he just got the better of new signing Adam Frith (149) and almost forced his way into the B team. But not quite. For Frith it was a steady start to his Woodford career after a very tough week at work and the only way is up. In 165, M50 Tony Pamphilon was running off very little training and will be eyeing the top 100 by Christmas. In 175, it was 400m man Paul Scanlan, showing a fine attitude in racing for 32 minutes in order to run sub-48 seconds next summer. In 181 M50 Richard Holland is just starting to race himself fit and will, like Pamphilon, be expecting far more as the season progresses.
In195th was U20 Ben Phillips, not particularly suited to these races but showing a very good attitude. And also cracking the 200 barrier was Jon Long (198), who has the talent if he can add the hunger. And closing the C team was Richard Hogg (204), who had some tiredness in his legs after running 89 minutes in the Great East Half Marathon 6 days earlier.
With 8 to score in Division 3, that closed the C team, in 3rd place behind Highgate B and Barnet. But with the scores 779, 765 and us 725, well up on 4th placed Thames Valley B, our C team have it all to play for this season. Promotion to Division 2 would mean that 10 men score next season.
Others
Apart from our 32 men who scored in these 3 teams, 11 more also finished. These were led in by M50 Alun Evans (208), 9" ahead of M55 Alistair Holford (212) and both will have other battles this winter. The evergreen Steve Sharp (225) made one of his rare but welcome appearances and was 2nd M60, 22" behind M60 winner Fitzpatrick (Herts Phoenix). In 230th, George Lloyd struggles to find running footwear to fit his size 15 feet, so ran in trainers, which obviously will not help his cause as the season progresses. If anyone knows where to get size 15 spikes, please let the team manager know.
In 234, M45 Martin Mack had a good last lap and dragged new recruit Mark Hughes (236) around with him. Both put distance between themselves and M45 Steve "the man they call Lambo" Lambert (249) after the silver fox fluffed his lines as the pressure was ramped up on lap 3. In 257 M60 Roy Williams was back after over 40 years in the green-and-white wilderness and loudly vowed to "beat Steve Sharp next time".
In 273, Gavin Powell was making his debut. "Fresh" from an ironman in Wales, Powell will no doubt benefit from joining our Tuesday and Saturday training sessions, which is his intention now. M55 Stuart Phillips finished 305 and would dearly love to break the 300 barrier this winter. We shall see. And M60 Trevor Powell (328) will be looking to shorten the gap (4mins20secs) to Stuart Powell and extend it over the penultimate man in the race (2mins24secs) next time out.
All in all this was an excellent start to the seniors' winter season and both squads are already looking forward to the next league race, at Stevenage on 10th November.
A big "Thank You" goes out to Graham Pribul, Michael Murphy and all those other club members who helped to put on Saturday's race and make it such a pleasure for the athletes.