Met League: Race 5: Young Athletes
The season’s ATW Metropolitan League business was rounded off at Wormwood Scrubs on Saturday with some good individual performances and notably a win for Isabella Hoy in the U15/17W race. Our U15/17W team finished 3rd on the day and were the best placed of our young athlete teams in the season long championship. Otherwise, to misquote Pete Seeger (who was not a club member), it was a case of “where have all our runners gone...” as the turnout of 28 at the season’s opener dropped to a paltry 11 yesterday.
The day was mercifully dry; the threatened heavy showers didn’t materialise although could be seen skirting the venue whilst the wind and the waterlogged and heavy conditions made life difficult for the runners as they tackled their abbreviated courses.
Isabella Hoy showed little ring rustiness after nine weeks without having crossed a finishing line. She was quickly to the front of proceedings and was not seriously troubled by the large cohort of Thames Valley girls who ended up filling five of the first nine places. As she coasted towards the finish she had nearly forty metres on TVH’s Olivia Osher; a gap amounting to 16 seconds at the line. Isabella was well supported by a good turnout of team mates; a somewhat self-critical Rosie Poole in 12th got the better this week of an initially hesitant Edie Preece who was a further 18 seconds back in 17th. Alicia McArdle was 9 seconds behind Edie and two places back to close the team whilst Abbie Dell continued to progress with her 24th place.
Joe Geller was our sole U13B representative and was seen setting off, mud bespattered after the first half furlong and mixing it at the front of the bunch. He completed his first Met League winter with another 14th place –consistency must be his middle name as he has finished all of these races by picking up a disc number between 9 and 15.
Joe’s disc number was matched by Daniel Rowden in the U15/17M’s event. So rare have been his cross country outings over the past two years that team manager Alistair Holford could have been forgiven for thinking that Daniel was at the Scrubs to support the team after a session on the TVH track. In cross country terms, the Scrubs is about as flat as it gets and so Daniel was comfortable mixing it with the mud larks for a change and his 14th place was a fair return and was less than a minute behind the winner. The never-say-die duo of Harry Cavell and Taylor Reece returned with 49th and 60th respectively although Harry in particular struggled in the strong wind.
Mia Hirons and Hannah Page were our two U13Gs on duty and picked up 27th and 40th and looked pleased with their day’s work; Hannah in particular was delighted to complete her first Met League event and sported a smile to match at the finish.
The final league tables had our U13Gs in ninth place (with just 6 runners competing but only 2 doing three or more of the 5 races). The U13Bs finished in seventh (drawing on 8 runners but just 3 did two or more including Joe who did all 5), the U15/17M finished in thirteenth (and used 12 runners of whom 10 were U15s but only 2 raced four times and 4 raced only once) whilst our most successful team (U15/17Ws) finished third. They used nine runners of whom six were U15Gs with Rosie running in all 5, Edie in 4 and Isabella in 3; four of the nine raced only once. If we are to succeed on a consistent basis, it requires more of our athletes to race and to race regularly and then they will be able to benefit from the shared experience.
As we made our way back to the coach to mull over the afternoon’s events, washing the mud off our boots in the conveniently flooded service road on the way, one man who was decidedly up-beat was Joe Geller’s dad who was happily reunited with his walking boots - inadvertently left at Horsenden Hill and brought by someone from the Ealing hosts. What a positive advert for the cross country community (and what a necessary piece of spectator equipment).