Hussein, Maxi, Sam, Finn, Marco, Fiona, Lauren & Thomas
Our young athletes finished off their cross country season with the North West London League at Wormwood Scrubs last Saturday, a fixture which was rescheduled from its original date due to snow. Young athlete coach Bridie Lebdiri shares a few thoughts on how it went.
In the U11G race, Sophie Buzzigoli ran her first ever race for the club. She did well to run in trainers, says Bridie, as conditions were very muddy underfoot, especially over the final 600 metres. U11 Mia de Vivenot of Ealing Eagles has been training with Bridie’s group for a couple of months and showing a lot of promise, as her third place showed. We look forward to her joining the ESM squad as the track & field season gets under way.
Josie Booker striding out
U13G Lucy Henson called time on her cross country season after being selected for the English Schools Championships the week before, but finished a fantastic second overall in this League – a just reward for her efforts during the season. Josie Booker, Athena Fremantle and Anna Dussaillant will admit that they prefer the lure of the track but they have worked hard these past few weeks, Bridie observes, and their endurance has improved. Josie in particular has made notable improvements and has a lovely style.
The U13B finished second on the day but didn’t place in the overall results. Finn Combe, Maxi Steel and Sam Bonnet make up a strong team when they all turn out on the same day. Finn went out fast and was overtaken at the end by two athletes, pushing him back to ninth. He did very well to finish fifth overall in the League. Maxi and Sam on the other hand went out slower and worked their way up from 20th at the 2k mark. It was a big improvement for Maxi on his previous races in this League: he started the season in 24th place and finished in 12th. He was ranked ninth overall in the final League standings. Louis Saint once again showed steady improvement, getting close to Maxi and Sam. Marco Lamagna, Hussein Zaaiter and Thomas Musie also looked much stronger, in particular Hussein, who works very hard in training.
All our U13s have been a pleasure to coach this winter, concludes Bridie, and should be very proud of how they have conducted themselves both at training and on race days. They are apparently all polite, funny and very committed, which sounds like the perfect combination of attributes!
ESM results summary:
U11G (1.2K): 33 Sophie Buzzigoli 6:24
U13G (2K): 17 Josie Booker 8:31; 25 Athena Fremantle 9:14; 29 Anna Dussaillant 9:56
U15G (3K): 10 Fiona Coutts 12:42; 11 Lauren Beale 12:56
U13B (3K): 9 Finn Combe 10:31; 12 Maxi Steel 10:41; 14 Sam Bonnet 10:45; 18 Louis Saint 11:09; 29 Marco Lamagna 11:52; 31 Hussein Zaaiter 12:01; 35 Thomas Musie 12:54
U15B (4K): 8 Marcus West 13:51; 25 Vitaly Bender 16:06; 28 Rafa Davison 16:39; 29 Matteo Lamagna 16:44
Full results on power of 10
Final League standings:
U11B: 19 Alec Edgar; 26 Finlay Vadon; 62 Tom Dobbin; 73 Evan Thompson
U13B: 5 Finn Combe; 9 Maxi Steel; 40 Thomas Musie; 43 Hussein Zaaiter; 45 Arun Smith; 54 Sam Bonnet; 59 Mohamed Ibrahim; 59 Louis Saint; 63 Taaj Ojha; 72 Marco Lamagna; 86 Joseph Flitter
U15B: 20 Arun Manget; 29 Marcus West; 34 Thomas Edgar; 37 Matteo Lamagna; 66 Rafa Davison; 73 Felix Mountford; 76 Vitaly Bender; 82 Michael Gavin
U17M: 9 Chauncey Edwards; 29 Kirk Lebdiri
U11G: 55 Kara Larkham; 78 Sophie Buzzigoli; 85 H. Proudmore
U13G: 2 Lucy Henson; 18 Josie Booker; 39 Athena Fremantle; 56 Anna Dussaillant; 74 Millie Vadon
U15G: 9 Anna Ilchenko; 18 Lauren Beale; 23 Fiona Coutts; 26 Charlotte Cooney Quinn; 52 Katie Hay
U17W: 6 Maryam Hussain; 8 Angel Grimes-McTavish; 13 Anisa Ibrahim; 19 Amira Nuseibeh