ATW Metropolitan CC League race 4: Young Athletes
With those young athletes eyeing English Schools’ selection next week and also the Southern Championships the week after, it was inevitable that participation in the fourth Active Training World London Metropolitan Cross Country League at a very wet and muddy Perivale would suffer. As a consequence, only nine of our young athletes made the start line but two of these were making their first Met League appearances of the season and their performances considerably bolstered our meagre teams.
The U13G team harbours hope of retaining the team shield at the end of the season and despite the absence of Isabella Hoy, they did themselves 
no harm in their quest but did slip to second place in the table by just six points behind a dominant Thames Valley team who packed 4 in 12. Aiofe Guyatt was our first runner home (in 5th) just managing to outsprint a Herts Phoenix runner by a single second. Our surprise package on the day was Jessica Archard whose 10th place showed off her potential as she made her first cross country appearance for the club and provided the team with most welcome support. Katie Petyt (13th) and Olivia Hounsome (18th) had solid runs and closed out the team in the 41 strong field.
Our only runner in the U15/17W field was Edie Preece; after admitting to some anxiety when she realised that that she would be racing against U17s, she ably showed off her liking for muddy terrain by following up on her Hadleigh performance with a fine 7th place in this, her first Met League of the season. In fact, the race was dominated by the younger of the two age groups with the first three and 8 of the first 15 all being U15Gs.
For the boys, just the consistent duo of Harry Cavell (37th) and Taylor Reece (45th) ploughed their way round the mud in the U15/17M race where their steady grit and determination allowed them to get the better of a number of bigger and older runners and several DNFs who couldn’t hack the conditions. The same also applied to Chris Hogg (40th) and Keelan Wilson (41st) who kept each other company for a fair chunk of the U13B race before Chris just edged ahead of Keelan towards the end of their muddy lap.
The conditions for the runners were unremittingly muddy and everybody took their fair share home with them. When the seniors had packed up and gone, the mud of the start field was left pockmarked with small, isolated oases of green grass where team groundsheets had been laid down and flags erected.