YA Victorious in Met League

We always look forward to the first Met League fixture at Claybury as there’s a big turnout of Woodies and last Saturday was no exception.

The Junior Men and Women’s race runs both U15 and U17 athletes, and the course is 4200 metres, one small lap of 1500m and one larger lap of 2700m. Having two laps with several hills and the little alleyways between the shrubs gave great spectator viewing, albeit one had to run around a bit!

Photos (by Alex Wardle)

The Junior Men’s race started first at 1pm, and 17 green and white hooped vests toed the line all together. After a very fast start with many of our U17 Men in the leading pack coming down the hill there was soon a Herts Phoenix 1-2 followed by a mass of Woodies. Our first man home was Jimmy Geller in fine form though still a bottom year runner, taking third place just 5 seconds off second in 13’57”, closely followed by Evan Johnson in 4^th for 14.04”, another bottom year in fantastic form, with Danny  Raymond 7^th and Max Richards 8^th closing the scoring A Team quartet in 14’19” and 14’21” respectively.

First scorer for our B team was Nathan Wright (11^th 14’.24) who, after most of this year off with injury, should be very pleased with this fantastic run, especially having run the Waltham Forest Borough champs the day before. He was followed by Reuben Fabian who finished 16^th in 14’50”.  Chris Richardson, another who had run the day before, was 27^th in 15’26” and closing out the B, much praise for Oscar Farthing-Barbero, an U15 athlete scoring for the B team a full two years younger than many racing, in 28^th place and 3^rd U15 in 15’27”.

First to score for the C team was Nate Harding, just behind his training partner Oscar and with exactly the same time in 29^th, 4^th U15, then Alfie Ward very much a 400/800m runner and experiencing his first ever XC outing for Woodford Green, came 30^th in 15’28”. Jay Russell came home next in 16’35” and Joe Arnold closed the scoring for Woodford in 58^th, 20^th U15.

Our final four runners; coming in 59^th and 21^st U15, Gregor Samson, next at 63^rd, and 24^th U15 in his first XC for Woodford was Vladimir Kalinins 17’01”, Godwinner Nkebani 65^th, 26^th U15 , 17’05, Patrick Hayden a bottom year U15 18’09” and Aidan O’Driscoll in his first race in 18’45”.

In the Junior Women's Race we were down in numbers having only two U17 women able to attend, however with the performance of the U15 we had an easy win.

Abigail Reid was our first Woodette home in 15’49” and had a brilliant run, finishing 2^nd and 2nd U15. Emily Caton, still only just back in training after a very long time out, was a fantastic 7^th and 5^th U15 in 16’25 and having run the day before, closely followed by Tilly Major 16’38” with a great 9^th, 7^th U15 and closing the A team yet another U15 with Molly Sherrin 16^th and 10^th U15 with 16’58”.

First scorer for the B team was Kezia Beeton, still a bottom year U17 with a fine 18^th in 17’07” followed by Matilda Frith, a bottom year U15 running 3 years down with a fantastic 37^th and 24^th U15 in 18’12”, then Izzy Worwood another U15, 50th and 31^st U15 in 19’19” with Emma Lord 59^th in 20’19” closing out the scoring. We must spare a though for U17 stalwart Bronya Overington  who was has been running Claybury since her WASP days but was unable to finish this one.

Our young men’s teams scored 1^st, 3^rd and 9^th and, had a D team been allowed, they would have come 15^th out of the 28 clubs and our young women, the majority of which are U15s,  were 1^st and 9^th out of 21.

Praise for this resounding success must go to John Stow’s coaching team of Alastair Fabian, Mark Wright, Laura Millward, Steve Cody, Libby Kozak, Carinne Jay, Paul Cheal and Richard Thurston.