It was another strong Met League showing from ESM, writes Chris Hepworth, with over 40 athletes taking to a wet Stevenage course for the second league race of the cross country season.
The senior men once again demonstrated their dominance in division two, holding off rivals Thames Valley Harriers and Highgate Harriers to extend their overall league lead. Ben Waterman led the way, managing to gain revenge on last time’s first finisher, George Corcoran, crossing the line in 26th place, just three seconds ahead of Corcoran in 28th. Sam Ashcroft made an impressive Met League return, pacing the race well to pull through to third ESM finisher, in 54th place. He was followed closely by Mukhtar Farah in 59th, Chris Hepworth in 73rd and Mo Hashi in 85th. Some good running in the pack from Archie Jones in 136th, Luke Nicholas, in 144th, Abraham Brown in 186th and Manish Kunwar in 200th, completed the scoring team in another large field of 441 runners.
In the women’s race, Nicola Shelley led the team home to another third place finish in division two, finishing in 54th, just four places ahead of Fiona Kennedy. They were followed to the finish by Patricia Thomas in 88th, Carol Jones in 114th and Louise Prince, who was the fifth and final scorer in 128th.
The win of the day came in the junior women’s race with Jessica Leane taking a well-judged victory, moving through the field to take first by just 2 seconds. The team packed well behind with Laura Stewart in ninth, U15 Lucy O’Brien in 11th, fourth in her age group. Cameron Thomas crossed the line in the final scoring position, finishing 38th, to leave the team in third place, just one point behind Highgate Harriers in second.
The junior men matched the women with a third place finish, two better than at Claybury. The team was led home by George Kerry who had a great run to finish second, just eight seconds off the win. John Fielding followed closely behind, finishing sixth only 19 seconds back. Kane Foster was the first U15 to finish, crossing the line in 21st, with the final scorer Luke Adar 36 seconds back in 36th.
Marco Lamagna was the solo ESM representative in the younger age groups, completing the 3km U13 boys’ course in 38th position.
The wet weather deterred our photographers, but if anyone has suitable photos to accompany this report, please post via Facebook!
ESM results summary
Men (8km): 26 Ben Waterman 27:18; 28 George Corcoran 27:21; 54 Sam Ashcroft 28:18; 59 Mukhtar Farah (U20) 28:31; 73 Christopher Hepworth 28:57; 85 Mohamed Hashi 29:14; 136 Archie Jones 30:34; 144 Luke Nicholas 30:42; 186 Abraham Brown 31:38; 200 Manish Kunwar (U20) 31:56; 211 Eliot Jones 32:10; 231 Mark Kencroft (V45) 32:47; 235 Angelo John (V40) 32:53; 250 Mark Delahunty (V40) 33:17; 256 Tom Yates 33:28; 316 James Steel (V45) 35:32; 334 Dave Foley (V55) 35:54; 370 Akira Anzai-Jackson 37:25; 376 Steve Plested (V65) 37:40; 421 John Falvey (V60) 41:50
U15/17 Boys (4km): 2 George Kerry 12:43; 6 John Fielding 13:02; 21 Kane Foster (U15) 13:39; 36 Luke Adar 14:15; 48 Arun Manget (U15) 14:42; 63 Matteo Lamagna (U15) 15:35; 65 Chauncey Edwards (U15) 15:38; 75 Mikey Kouwiloyan (U15) 16:48
U13 Boys (3km): 38 Marco Lamagna 14:39
Women (6km): 54 Nicola Shelley 25:48; 58 Fiona Kennedy (W55) 26:03; 88 Patricia Thomas (W50) 27:27; 114 Carol Jones (W55) 28:54; 128 Louise Prince (W45) 29:38; 131 Lynn Wilson (W55) 29:47; 144 Katie Di Paolo 30:58
U15/17 Girls (4km): 1 Jessica Leane 14:55; 9 Laura Stewart 15:37; 11 Lucy O’Brien (U15) 15:41; 38 Cameron Thomas 17:37; 41 Estelle Belgrave (U15) 17:54; 42 Roisin Lynch 18:04
Full results here