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Met League race 4 2024, Welwyn Gdn City: U15/17

The week leading up the race had no rain at all so the course, partly on a camber, proved to be fairly dry. Not a bad day weather-wise, either, as it wasn't too cold and the sun made an occasional appearance.

Junior Men U15/17

A reasonable size field of around 80 runners set off at a rapid pace. Up front Luke Dunham, the Herts Phoenix U17 runner, took control with a pack of five in his wake that included Harry Stockill. It was quite clear this race was a battle between us and Shaftesbury Barnet, with many runners prominent from these two big clubs.

On the second lap the leading pack of six were still together, with Harry just hanging on at the back of the group. At the finish Dunham raced through for his third Met League wi,n with Harry leading home the Woodies in 6th place, less than 20 seconds behind the winner, who last year broke 8 mins 50 secs for 3000 metres. Harry's coach believes that he could emulate that time this summer. After that it was a sea of black and white stripes and green and white hoops. William Muffatt was aiming for the top 10 today and got that after a great finish at the end.  William was 8th U17.

Chasing William home was Joshua Ssempiira in 12th place, clearly improving all the time. Josh was 10th U17. Right behind these two was Luka Norden, the 3rd U15. Luka said his legs felt tired throughout and he was disappointed with his run but 3rd from 43 U15s is still a great result. Next in was Nate Harding, whose training had been depleted recently with a slight ankle injury. He still ran well for 15th in the U17 race. Joe Oates continues to improve and he stuck to the task in great fashion for 17th. Next in was young Daniel Arnold, who ran an intelligent race and came through strongly for 7th in the U15 race. So we had 7 in the top 24 so far. Josh Stephenson, who just missed out on a team silver last weekend, was 11th in the U15 race. A measure of Josh’s improvement, he was 63rd at Claybury overall, and 33rd today at Welwyn.

Excellent back up came from Vladimir Kalinins, who was 26th U17, Oliver Brown 33rd U15, and Ethan Withfield 43rd U15.

Team-wise we were just 12 points adrift of SBH, with our B team only one point adrift  of SBH. Both clubs had two teams each in the top five on the day.

The boys are showing great team spirit which was endorsed on Sunday when a group of these lads were seen out on their long Sunday run close to Theydon Bois. Great to see and hear.

Junior Girls U15/17

Just four Woodettes on the start line, but how well they all did in placing 3rd on the day and maintaining the same position as the boys overall - 2nd.

It was great having Bethan Rose Davies back racing again. Bethan is no lover of the mud and hills, but she put in a great effort for the team, placing 8th in the U15 race. Tess Noblett, another great club girl, was just a yard back in 9th. Summer Maw and Matilda Frith also made the trip to support WGEL and came away with good runs of 5th (Summer) and 8th (Matilda) in the U17 race.

So whilst most of our runners now prepare for the Essex Schools next Saturday, in the longer term we look toward the final match at Trent Park on Sat 10th Feb. A really good turnout will be needed if we are to retain the overall title we have won for the past five seasons. SBH have a slender lead but we are not giving up just yet.