Several club members were in action at the England Athletics Championships in the National Indoor Arena at the weekend. The Lewis twins both returned with medals in the under 15 events.
Makeda Lewis reached the final of the girls 60 metres on Saturday and ran a personal best of 7.98 in fifth place. In all three rounds she stormed through in the last few strides. On Sunday she was fast away in all three rounds of the 200 metres. She won her heat and semi-final comfortably and set a personal best of 25.80 in the final to take the silver medal.
Mali Lewis set off fast in the boys 400 metres but struggled to stay with the pace in the middle of the race. However he finished very strongly in the last 150 metres to take the bronze medal, improving on his personal best by over two seconds with 53.91.
Alex Ojo was also in fine form in the under 20 60 metres, reaching the semi final and recording a personal best of 7.08. His brother Michael reached the final of the under 15 60 metres, finishing strongly to take fifth place in 7.40.
The club had yet another large turn-out in the National Cross Country Championships at Alton Towers on Saturday. The biggest team was the under 13 girls with no less than ten runners. Most successful though were the under 15 boys who finished eighth out of 38 teams.
Leading the under 15 boys was Karnvir Hayer who finished 12th in only his third cross-country race. Only six weeks ago Karnvir was sixth in the Middlesex championships. Three weeks later he was 22nd in the Southerns and now he finishes 12th in the national championships.
Close behind was Richard Charles in 26th . The team was completed by Christopher Young in 156th and Christopher Charles in 160th with Mark Cameron just six seconds behind in 174th. With all five athletes in the same age group again next year there must be a real prospect of medals.
The under 13 boys also delivered a solid result to finish 21st out of 39 teams. Dalton McGuigan was first home in 80th place. Behind him the other boys packed well. Duncan Pinder was 120th with Anthony Haynes (148th) just holding off Fellan McGuigan (152nd). Not far behind were Jordan Hannington (177th) and Sam Shindler-Glass (190th).
Patrick Hannah continued his return to form finishing 148th in the under 17 men’s race. Jamie Taylor-Caldwell (194th), Anthony Shaw (233rd) and Chris Hepworth (239th) were the other scorers.
The senior men managed to field a full team this year but the line up was mainly veterans. With the course being significantly shorter than the advertised seven and a half miles the club’s leading runner Andy Kotsyubka failed to make much of an impact finishing only 249th.
Andy Dodd on the other hand had an exceptional run to finish 396th. Rob Brown was close behind in 413th . Veterans Steve Plested (592nd), Rob Howells (646th) and Phil York (820th) rounded out the six to score team.
Best of the female teams were the seniors, though all of them were a little below par. Alison Hopkins made a good start but faded on the second lap and was overhauled in the finishing straight by Fiona Kennedy. The pair finished 116th and 124th. Patricia Thomas held off Gill Morgan as they finished 207th and 228th. The team were 24th out of 61.
Shannon Powell was yet again the first of the club’s under 13 girls to finish in 217th place. Evie King was a hundred metres further back in 250th with Kerry Baily just ahead of Mari Johnson in 286th and 290th places. Ellis Redmond (304th), Hannah McDougall (324th), Katie Eastmond (331st) and Grainne Gahan (332nd) were not far behind.
Georgia Bell made a strong start to the under 15 girls race and was placed in the top twelve for most of the race. However the near vertical slope half a mile from the end proved her downfall and she slipped back to 35th. Emma Davies was second scorer in 171st, Nicky Shelley was 280th with Maddie Horne and Rosie Cordy 296th and 297th.
With Martha Reynolds ruled out with a knee injury the under 17 women were one short of a team. Hannah Pollak finished 116th with Helen French 171st and Elizabeth Matthews 193rd.
The last race of Metropolitan League cross-country series took place at St. Albans on Saturday. Our under 13 boys were the only squad with a chance of taking a league title. They scored a clear win on the day but failed by just four points to win the title St Mary’s Richmond beat them overall by 549 to 545 points.
Duncan Pinder was the only one to go with the pace in the under 13 boys race lying third early on. However Dalton McGuigan came through strongly in the second half to finish second with Duncan fourth. Anthony Haynes also finished well in fifth with Fellan McGuigan sprinting in to grab tenth place on the line.
For the under 13 girls Kerry Baily was always well placed and ended up eighth. Evie King was 13th with Ellis Redmond having her best run of the season in 14th. Kate Eastmond pulled away from Mari Johnson to take the last scoring place in 17th, Mari was 22nd.
Numbers were light in the older boys and girls races because of Thursday’s Middlesex Schools championships. Best performance was from London School’s junior champion Georgia Bell who controlled her race from the front. Helena French and Nicky Shelley were 19th and 24th.
For the boys, Luke Nicholas was seventh. Sam Ashcroft got the better of Mark Cameron in a sprint finish as the pair were 18th and 19th. Chris Hepworth completed the team in 24th.
Fiona Kennedy, Ashlee McGuigan and Gill Morgan all showed signs of getting back to full fitness in the senior women’s race. Fiona’s 19th place put her back in the top 20 for the first time since the opening match of the season. Ashlee got the better of Gill to improve 18 places to 32nd with Gill finishing 42nd.
Carol Jones was 62nd. Next in was Mary Walsh who pulled away from Julia Gristwood mid-race to finish 69th with Julia in 73rd.
The senior men were lacking firepower at the front though they packed well in the middle. Andy Kotsyubka had an excellent run in 18th place but there was a long gap after him to Bill Gristwood in 60th.
Ben McCallum made a good start, returning to action after a back problem. He faded in the second half though and Andy Dodd passed him to finish 73rd. Ben just managed to hold off Rob Brown as they ended up 77th and 78th. Richard Tomlinson was not far behind in 87th.
Mark Delahunty was 121st ahead of the battle between the men’s over 50 team. This week it was Rob Howells who was always clear, though Steve Plested closed him right down at the end. Just four seconds separated them in 130th and 135th. Also coming through strongly at the end was Phil Manly who finished 143rd.
Doug Buckeridge improved yet again to finish 171st and Graham French completed the scoring team in 223rd.
The combined South of England and Middlesex Veteran cross-country championships were back at Mad Bess Woods in Ruislip on Saturday. Fiona Kennedy was once again in the medals as were the men’s over 50 team.
Three times Southern over 45 champion Fiona Kennedy moved up an age group to take her first Southern over 50 title. Although not yet back to top form there was nobody in her category who could get close. She was also the second Middlesex finisher and won the Middlesex over 45 title too.
Gill Morgan made a determined start to the women’s race and held on well to take the silver medal in the Middlesex over 45 category. Julia Gristwood was 65th overall.
The men’s championships were split into two races, starting with the over 50 men. Seven men from the club turned out for the earlier race and they won the Middlesex title.
Steve Plested had an outstanding run finishing fifth over 55 and 30th overall. Sixth and seventh over 55’s were Phil Manly and Rob Howells who were half a minute further back in 38th and 39th overall. Rob was left wondering whether the stop to tie up his shoe laces had denied him victory over Phil.
Doug Buckeridge completed the winning team, finishing 58th in his first race since an operation in the autumn.
The club looked to have reasonable teams in the 40 to 49 race too. However Rob Brown dropped out with an injury and John Blanchard struggled with new cross-country spikes.
In the end it was Bill Gristwood who led the team home in 37th. John Blanchard rallied to catch Phil York on the last lap as the pair finished 72nd and 77th. Chris Lee stayed on strongly to end up 88th.