South of England 5k; Year 7 Inter Counties
The South of England 5K course was the same as the short legs on the Men's 12 stage relay, but it was an undulating route and not a fast course for times.
U15s
Both teams came away with team golds from a very small field. In the girls race Abigail Reid had been on a geography course for the previous three days so understandably was still tired from this excursion. She still posted a PB of 18 mins 32 secs, placing 2nd. Tilly Major also produced a PB of 19 mins 22 secs for 4th and Matilda Frith placed 8th with another PB of 21 mins 16 secs. One must recognise that Matilda is hugely involved in helping weekly on the Roding Valley Junior Park Run.
The boys also had a good day. Nate Harding promptly took a minute off his PB running 17 mins 42 secs for 3rd. Oscar Farthing Barbero also found the firmer going to his liking to record 18 minutes exactly for 5th. Godwinner Nkembani also smashed his PB with 18 mins 34 secs for 8th. Gregor Samson had missed training all of last week due to Covid, so his PB of 19 mins 11 seconds secs for 12th was a fine run for him.
U17s
Kezia Beeton took second spot with 19 mins 22 secs, a good solid run, and we are now seeing Kezia coming into good form approaching the track season. Emma Lord just missed her PB for 6th in 22 mins 59 secs. Emma is a consistent athlete both in training and races. Reuben Fabian and Nathan Wright both set big PBs with 16 mins 41 secs for Reuben, and Nathan 16 mins 50 secs. Reuben placed 8th and Nathan 10th. Both lads really deserved this after training hard in recent weeks.
The juniors enjoyed their day at Milton Keynes and coming away with medals will give them confidence as the track season starts shortly.
Year 7 Inter Counties XC Champs
Following their excellent runs last month in the Hertfordshire Schools XC Year 7 champs, Jasmine Hall (2nd in that race) and Autumn Le Chevalier-Jones (3rd in that race) were selected to represent Hertfordshire Schools in the National Year 7 Inter Counties XC Champs at Market Harborough.
In recent weeks both girls had worked diligently towards this race. On Sunday mornings Autumn had been going to Trent Park working with Richard Thurston, whilst Jasmine had been doing some solid grass session at Sawbridgeworth.
A glorious sunny day greeted the athletes for this prestigious event which was on a flat, fast grassland course over 3000 metres. 18/20 Counties supported the event, so the opposition was tough with leading lights from many counties.
The girls got out well and at halfway were both hanging on well to places in the top 20. Going into the final 600 metres another county athlete cut right across Autumn which caused her distress but she still hung on gallantly to place 37th from a large field of county runners. Meanwhile Jasmine was holding her forward position in great style to place 21st. Jasmine returned 11 mins 19 seconds for the 3k course whilst Autumn ran 11 mins 50 seconds.
Both girls can be proud of their debuts for Hertfordshire and were 2nd and 3rd scorers for their county.