Saturday’s weather proved challenging for our young athletes competing in the final fixture of the North West London League at Wormwood Scrubs, but they enjoyed a successful end to the season, with the U17 girls taking the overall league title. (The U15 girls were also awarded the trophy for their age group on the day, but it emerged later they had just missed out to Shaftesbury Barnet, following a re-count). Although the boys didn’t win any trophies, they did well overall, ranked third on the overall boys’ team challenge.
There were individual medals too, with U17 Laura Stewart and U15 Anisa Ibrahim winning their age groups. Five others also won medals for points gained during the season: U17s Roisin Lynch, John Fielding and Luke Adar, and U15s Cameron Thomas and Naoki Kanai. The photo left shows Laura, Anisa and Roisin.
As for the day’s racing, Jennie Connelly joined Laura and Roisin to ensure the U17s had a full team. They only needed to get the better of the Harrow girls to take the title, and this they duly achieved. The club only fielded two U15 girls, but as other teams were also short it was enough to take the title, with Anisa Ibrahim finishing second on the day. U11 Sadie Lawrence was able to put in a more competitive race on her second outing for the club, with the aid of a newly-acquired pair of spikes.
A good group of U11 boys turned up (see photo below) and were rewarded with a downpour of sleet as they were running. These young athletes have been improving all season. The U15 boys were led home by Naoki Kanai with a good strong run in his last cross country race in the UK before he and younger brother Masaki return to Japan. The club will greatly miss their enthusiastic participation and the support of their parents. For the U17 men, Zak Wingate-Davis ran strongly in only his second race to stay in touch with more experienced runners.
This match concluded the 50th season of this long-established League, and ESM was proud to host one of the events. A great deal of time and effort was put in by all those involved on that day, and thanks are due to them, as well as to the coaches, team managers and officials who prepared the athletes and supported them at each fixture.
ESM results summary
U11G (1200m): 23 Sadie Lawrence 5:46
U15G (2800m): 2 Anisa Ibrahim 11:24; 11 Maryam Hussain 12:37
U17W (4000m): 1 Laura Stewart 17:22; 4 Roisin Lynch 19:44; 5 Jennie Connelly 21:20
U11B (2000m): 5 Najiib Hersi 7:56; 13 Finn Coombe 8:20; 23 Masaki Kanai 8:40; 38 Harvey Williams 8:55; 45 Marco Lamagna 9:06
U13B (3000m): 17 Mahiis Hersi 11:24; 28 Mikey Kouwiloyan 11:56; 33 Matteo Lamagna 12:21; 37 Luke Balmer 13:43
U15B (4000m): 6 Naoki Kanai 15:54; 8 Ilyes Iman 16:09; 13 Jonathan Martin 17:06; 15 Sudeys Hersi 17:19; 20 Davide Lamagna 18:43
U17M (4700m): 5 Luke Adar 19:22; 8 Zak Wingate-Davis 19:36
Click for full results.