The Under 17s led the way for the club at Horsenden Hill last Saturday. Both the men’s and women’s teams used home advantage to top the points table after the first fixture of the North West London cross country league.
Mukhtar Farah won the U17 men’s race by over half a minute, and was ably backed up by Charlie Sillett in fourth. The club was well represented, with Reece Farren in 13th, Raunak Mainali in 14th, and newcomers Eddie Rowe (16th) and A. Malik (17th), leaving the B team in fourth.
Courtney Marshall led the winning U17 girls’ team home in third, followed by Martha Hayward in fourth, while Jennie Connelly completed the team in eighth.
The U15 boys also did well, pipping TVH to third spot by just one point. George Kerry’s fourth place scored valuable points, backed up by William Coutts (14th) and newcomer Yasin Raffat (19th).
The U15 girls performed almost as well, finishing fourth. Nicola Ravenhill fought hard to stay with the leaders from TVH, just losing contact towards the end and claiming fourth. Laura Stewart was the second squad member across the line, picking up a few places towards the end of the race. Maryam Hussain showed a good return to form with 19th spot, while Roisin Lynch recovered well from a fall to finish 21st.
Lucy O’Brien ran a competitive race for the U13 girls, finishing third. Anisa Ibrahim was next home in 25th. Sarah Freegard was 39th followed by Niamh Lynch finishing 43rd in her first race for the club. The team finished halfway up the points table.
The U13 boys was a relatively inexperienced team. New members Talvin McClunie and Sudeys Hersi were first to show in 25th and 30th respectively. Mikey Kouwiloyan completed the line-up in 33rd.
The U11 boys finished eighth overall, but were well represented. Najeeb Hersi was first to show, in 33rd, but Rif Marrast and Thomas Edgar were hot on his heels, only seconds separating the three. M. Hersi was next in, taking 37th place, while nine-year-old Mohamed Ibrahim completed the line-up in 39th.
Caoimhe O’Brien was the club’s only representative in the U11 girls’ race, crossing the line in 17th.