Met League 2, U15/U17; UK Cross Challenge, Cardiff
So after eight years we returned to Horsenden Hill on an overcast day but mild with little or no wind. 55 Young athletes made the trip across town ,which is a record youth turnout for WGEL.This enabled the club to preserve an eleven point advantage over Shaftesbury in the Howard Williams Junior Trophy. We currently lead in the U11 Boys and Girls, U13 Girls and the Junior Men. The U13 Boys are lying 3rd and Junior Women 5th.
U17 Men
We had two of our top lads out due to family commitments but this did not prevent us from winning overall and slightly extending our lead over SBH and HP, although the latter had Luke Dunham racing in Cardiff the same day. Harry Stockill led the lads home in 4th. Although Harry felt he did not have his best race, his coach did emphasise to him you can't always be at your best for every race. Harry had raced for the school two days earlier. Hot on his heels was Oscar Eaton who was nine places higher than Claybury and is really starting to show some good form.
Josh Stephenson, improving all the time, was 16th, three places higher than Claybury. All three lads come from the same village. A welcome return was Joshua Ssempira in 17th place which was a great run. Next in was William Muffett in 20th. One must remember that William has recently started an apprenticeship and this has changed his lifestyle from last year when he was at school. William will no doubt come good on the indoor circuits during the winter. Max Koscheck closed the team in with 39th. Max will look towards a good track season next summer as he is able to train more often in the winter months. There were 50 finishers.
U15 Boys
This race is combined with the U17s and it’s worth mentioning here that some of the younger year runners have to run alongside lads three years older than them.
Daniel Arnold led the team home in 4th spot from a field of 64. This was a fine run from Daniel who was slightly disappointed with his run at Mansfield the weekend before. Lucas Freedman, who will hugely benefit from a full cross country season, (just ask Steve Cram - he will agree with that) was 17th. The course, being fairly dry, suited Lucas.
Next in were the two new lads, Kaden Nelson-Gursoy and Adam Amin, in 22nd and 25th. Both lads are steadily improving and the coach hopes they will feature in the YDL when that team look to defend their premiership title. Two more first year lads must be complimented on their performances: Tayo Adetona 42nd and Thomas Nicholls 43rd. Well done Rahul Solanki who closed the squad in 45th place. Rahul is a 300m runner but will always support WGEL, no matter what the event.
U17 Women
Molly Sherrin, reliable as ever, led the team in once again. She was 3rd despite being sent off course. Molly is someone who gives everything for the cause of her club. She will now hope she may get one of the discretionary places on offer to represent Essex (now confirmed!). Next home and a welcome return was Anaand Tratt in 9th place. Last summer Anaand had a great season with great results over both 1500 and 3000 metres.
Matilda Frith placed 15th. Matilda, no matter what the competition is, will always be there to support her club. A fantastic club girl and it's hoped we may see her on the track in the NAL in the steeplechase. Juliet Taylor closed the squad in 17th spot and, like Matilda, what a great club girl Juliet is.
U15 Girls
This race was combined with the U17 race with 41 runners on the start line. Again here we have girls stepping up from last year's U13s to race alongside girls three years older than them. Sophia Parker led the team home in 19th - a good result for her. Sophia is enjoying playing football alongside her running, so her training is slightly limited. Like Sophia, the next two girls are bottom year U15s. Marissa Higgs-Smith was 27th with a tremendous sprint finish, and her team mate Emilia Kozinska finished 28th. Both girls did really well. The squad was closed in with two more bottom year U15s: Isla Barron 32nd and Enioluwaft Fadahunsi 33rd. All these bottom year runners must be hugely complimented for their efforts.
The girls moved up a spot to 5th place.
So overall a great turnout and result and we move on to Uxbridge in three weeks time.
UK Cross Challenge Cardiff
U15 Boys
This was a fine result for George Watkins, who was 4th over a distance of 3200 metres. After a fast start five lads, including ours, broke away. Euan Withnakl, a 1:55 800m and 4:01 1500m runner, was leading the race from Scottish champion Muir, Welsh champion Parry and English Schools international Caspian Holmes. At halfway our runner took the lead briefly and the field whittled down to four with Holmes losing contact. Towards the finish Withnall really applied the pressure to edge home just in front of Muir, with Parry and George fighting it out for the bronze medal which Parry just claimed by one second. George’s time of 9mins 45secs is probably worth under 9 minutes for 3000 metres on the track. A great result indeed.
Under 20 Men
This was by far the best race Nathan Wright has run, though a top 10 Met league result at Claybury had shown he was in good shape. Here he was alongside many international runners. Nathan has really worked well with coach Richard Thurston, and it has paid off. Throughout the race he was never far away from the leaders and he stuck to his forward position in great style to place 12th in a loaded field, just 30 seconds behind William Rabjohns who took part in the World Junior Championships in the summer and is a sub 4 minute miler. Nathan ran 16mins 43secs for the 5560 metres course. This time is probably worth close to 15 minutes for 5k on the track.
In two weeks time both lads travel to Liverpool, where they could both be prominent once more.