ATW Met League race 5: Young Athletes

This part of the cross country season is always congested but recent postponements and rearrangements have given many of our young athletes a potential 8 fixtures in 7 weeks and so perhaps understandably, attendance was limited at Saturday’s Active Training World Metropolitan League fixture at Merchant Taylors’ School. The last Met League of the season was sandwiched between last week’s rearranged Essex Schools and next week’s rescheduled South of England Championships together with the Mini-Marathon trials taking place on the following day.  Given this, there were only 8 green and white vests on the start line for the young athlete races; our smallest representation in a Met League fixture since 2008, even with the incentive of club championship medals to compete for. There were however some bright performances and rewards for our regular participants.

Results

The performance of the day came from Alicia McArdle in the U15/17W race – this was a reassuring and in the end, a confident looking outing after injury and some hesitant races recently. With much of the day’s racing around the immaculate sports pitches and therefore visible from the start/finish area, it was possible to watch much of the action. After allowing a small group of 4 runners to get away during the first lap, Alicia proceeded to gradually reel them back to finish just a yard short of 4^th place. Abbie Dell had her first Met League outing for two seasons and finished a sound 18^th and was followed just over a minute later by Steph Smith in 23rd.

Jessica Archard (U13G) again showed good promise claiming ninth and finishing in the middle of a pack of five runners. These were all behind a dominant Thames Valley quartet who claimed the first four places and in doing so, deservedly took the championship shield that our girls had held for the past two years. Jess was our only finisher as Mia Hirons was forced to retire.

For the boys, Chris Hogg carried the flag for the U13Bs and looked competitive for 23rd in amongst a group of six all trying to outsprint each other whilst in the U15/17M race, the ever-present duo of Harry Cavell (31st) and Taylor Reece (39th) went about their race with their customary and dogged application.

The medals for the club championships that were incorporated into this fixture will be awarded as follows, at the Awards event scheduled for Tuesday 12th March after training (the U20 winners running in the Senior races):