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Met League 3, 2023-2024, Uxbridge: Seniors

This year, the challenging course of Uxbridge combined with some very cold and wintry conditions to mean that this was certainly a day of ‘proper cross-country’ running! The water levels were high, the temperatures were low and the mud was deep as our teams faced the ‘ski slope’ and river crossing.

Our ladies were led home by Alicia McArdell in 39th - her highest finish of the session thus far. Aoibheann Pearce and Zoe Watson fought to be second home with Aoibheann pipping Zoe at the finish to take 70th place. Unfortunately, an admin error has removed Zoe from the results and she has failed to count for the team. This has artificially lowered our team results but hopefully we can pull it back in the next fixture to remain in Division 1.

Kate Stockings fought hard in the last lap to finish 96th, just inside the top 100. Katie Olert was just behind in 105th describing her first experience of the Uxbridge course as ‘brutal’. Team Manager Kate once again apologizes for failing to mention just how steep the ‘ski slope’ hill is… at least the next fixture is (mostly!) flat.

In the senior men, other fixtures meant we were missing many of our club stalwarts and our position as a team reflects this. However, young talent along with two new recruits meant that the green and white vests were plentiful in the top 50 runners. Joel Doye had another excellent run to finish 6th, his highest ever Met League position. This is particularly impressive given that he is still an under 20 athlete. Next home was Oliver Bushdari in 21nd closely followed by Nathan Wright in 25th as 3rd U20. All three of these athletes are in John Stow’s training group, which recently gained Haider Razzaq too. It was great to see his willingness to test himself with a race and he made a promising debut, finishing in 39th over a tough course.

Mike Waddington once again had a solid run and despite his dislike of muddy conditions finished 44th in his second Met League of the season. His race was eventful featuring a side step around a river-faller and a lost shoe. Dan Steele provided valuable mid-field support with a 67th position. Having joined as a second claim athlete, Deelan Bushdari raced his first Met League in 87th - we hope to have him join for the remaining two fixtures and look forward to seeing how he performs.

Next in was another second-claimer with Jon Williams in 157th, ahead of Bertie Powell in 188th. Bertie continues his quest to complete 100 consecutive Met Leagues and with 95 now completed it means that the century should fall on the same fixture next year. It’s an occasion that we (hopefully!) look forward to celebrating with him. Talking of Met League achievements, Paul Stockings was our last man home in 367 moaning that his ‘terrible’ position was a result of completing the Lanzarote running challenge the previous week. Two short of a full-scoring contingent took us to a respectable 6th and meant we maintained 4th position overall.

Pete Caton was one of those racing elsewhere as he took on the Essex Vets Champs at Writtle College. He was pleased with his ten place improvement on last year as he finished in 25th. The more distant venue of Valencia hosted Tom Beedell and Jordan Donnelly as they took on arguably the fastest marathon course in the world. They forged a plan the evening before the race to meet-up on the start line and were able to enjoy racing the first 10km in close vicinity. Tom pushed on at this point but they both endured a significant battle over the last half to hold pace and were rewarded with PBs. Tom finished in 2:27:36 and Jordan in 2:28:22.

At Battersea Park, veteran Tony Pamphilon won his first individual British title in the BMAF 5K road race, clocking 18:38 on a very cold morning, a time which ranks him 5th in the UK for 2023.