We had another successful Met League outing on Saturday – when we put our minds to it, we pack a pretty good punch for a small club!
The course had been tweaked slightly due to construction works, and the women had a new route to get their heads round, as they were running the men’s course for the first time. It was a chilly day but luckily the rain held off for the early races, and the course wasn’t too slippy underfoot.
The senior men went one better than last time to finish fourth in Division One, which is a great result. Twenty toed the line, as at Claybury, with much of the team unchanged. Once again the sharp end was bolstered by the likes of Ben Waterman, Oliver Way, Jamie Taylor-Caldwell , Mo Hashi and Chris Hepworth, all in the top 100, but we also had Hugo Blatge making his club debut with a very nifty 40th place. Our leading guys changed place quite a bit in the course of the race, and there was great packing at the finish, with less than half a minute separating our first five. John Robertson was our first veteran home in 113rd, and the remaining scorers also packed well: there was little over half a minute between Akira Anzai-Jackson, Nick Steel, Santosh Rai, Sean Hanrahan and Mark Kencroft.
Women’s Team Manager Shona Cowper was delighted with their second place finish on the day, moving them up to fourth in Division Two. It was Sarah Gerrie who led the team home in 42nd, and Shona kept her in her sights the whole way round, finishing just two places behind. The finish couldn’t come soon enough for Sarah, who was still changing her spikes ten minutes before the start: “I got 10 metres into my run and realised I had somehow got a loose spike inside each of my shoes, so I ran with what felt like a massive thorn wedged under my big toes”! Fiona Kennedy had a mid-race wobble when calf pain struck, but a timely call from Yorkie reminded her that she was third scorer, and she rallied well in the final lap, to finish first in the W60 category.
1500m runner Gabi Rasiukeviciute has been a great addition to the squad this season, finishing inside the top 100. Pat Thomas closed the scoring team in 120th, and had to pull out a mighty sprint finish after thinking she had another lap to go while she was actually just a few hundred metres from the line! 17 year old Amira Nuseibeh was on her third senior cross country race this season, and admits she prefers the longer distance. We just need her to persuade the other U20s that they can master it too – Cameron Thomas was heard muttering that she’s never doing another 5 mile cross country race, but hopefully we can persuade her it’s all in the mind…
We didn’t have too many young athletes on this occasion. Many of them have multiple sporting interests and they need to keep their other coaches happy, but there will be a fair few out on Parliament Hill next weekend, representing their Borough in the ever-popular London Youth Games.
In the opening U11 boys’ race Sammy Gibson finished third in only his second cross country race for the club. Mika Strip and Elliot Edgar also raced, and with one short of a full team, the boys did well to finish fifth in this age group. Ed Flewitt followed up with a fine eighth place in the U13 boys’ race, his first ever outing in an ESM vest. With only one club training session under his belt, his fitness from other sports carried him through.
The next Met League is our final pre-Christmas fixture, and it’s very close to home at Uxbridge, so it would be great to have a good turnout. Click here for full details.
Before that, there’s a cross country match at Trent Park on Saturday 23rd November, with races for all age groups. It’s usually possible to enter on the day, but kinder to your Team Manager if you let them know in advance!
The following weekend we host the Perivale 5M road race and a 2KM Fun Run for Under 15s on Sunday 1st December. If you’re not racing, please consider volunteering – contact Phil York for details.
ESM results summary:
U11B (1.7K): 3 Sammy Gibson 5:19, 17 Mika Stripp 5:55, 24 Eliot Edgar 6:11
U13B (3K): 8 Edward Flewitt 11:31
U15B/U17M (4.2K): 40 Thomas Edgar 15:58, 96 Hussein Zaaiter (U15) 20:01
U15G/U17W (4.2K): 34 Katie Hay 19:54, 46 Sonia Ouzhene (U15) 20:47, 49 Fiona Coutts 20:58
U20W/SW (7.8K): 42 Sarah Gerrie (V35) 32:42, 44 Shona Cowper 32:52, 83 Fiona Kennedy (V60) 34:59, 96 Gabija Rasiukeviciute 36:01, 120 Patricia Thomas (V55) 37:23, 167 Carol Jones (V60) 39:46, 170 Amira Nuseibeh (U20) 40:03, 177 Cameron Thomas (U20) 40:26, 207 Barbro Julin (V55) 43:44
U20M/SM (7.8K): 33 Ben Waterman 26:21, 40 Hugo Blatge 26:30, 41 Oliver Way 26:31, 44 Jamie Taylor-Caldwell 26:41, 47 Mohamed Hashi 26:45, 84 Christopher Hepworth 27:39, 113 John Robertson (V40) 28:30, 174 Akira Anzai-Jackson 30:12, 187 Nick Steel 30:24, 197 Santosh Rai (V35) 30:32, 203 Sean Hanrahan 30:36, 213 Mark Kencroft (V50) 30:45, 253 Mark Delahunty (V45) 31:52, 318 Robert Brown (V50) 33:39, 357 Martin Daoud (V55) 34:51, 367 Martin Shelley 35:18, 431 Philip York (V55) 37:28, 461 Steve Plested (V65) 38:58, 464 David Foley (V60) 39:09, 474 Liam Kencroft 39:53
Full results on power of 10
Please email Fiona with any errors or omissions.