SEAA XC relays Wormwood Scrubs

In conditions at the Scrubs, which could be best described as near perfect with no wind or rain and the going underfoot firm. The circuit of 2.9k included some twists and turns but it was generally a good day for fast times.

We had two teams from a starting field of thirty teams. Harry Stockill started the ball rolling for the Woodies and had an excellent run placing third, just five seconds down on the leader, Caspian Holmes from Herne Hill. Harry recorded 8 mins 39 for the 2.9k, worth under 9 minutes for 3k against the Herne Hill runner posting 8 mins 34. Luka Norden took over on leg 2 and chased after the two teams in front and was able to pass the Chiltern runner. Late on, though, Eastbourne Rovers in the form of Lumber-Fry and Bracknell's Ben Lucas got past our man. Still Luka came in 4th with all to play for on the last leg. Luka returned 8 mins 51 for the 2.9k circuit. Oscar Eaton took over on the last leg and managed to pass both the Herne Hill and Bracknell runners to go into 2nd place but Havering with Freddie Rowe (a 3 mins 44 1500 runner) was having an inspired race clocking 8 mins 14 for his leg to sweep through for the title. Oscar hung onto third place to give us our first set of medals at this event. Oscar ran 8 mins 40, so just eleven seconds separated our three boys. We were just twenty seconds shy of first place.

Daniel Arnold started out for the other team. Although disappointed with his run he still managed 9 mins 43 for the circuit. Daniel is now going to focus on a block of training to get his fitness up. Josh Stephenson took care of stage two and had perhaps his best race ever, running 9mins 18 to hand over to Samuel Singh  who is enjoying his first season with us, having joined WGEL in June  this year. Samuel is slowly improving and he ran 9 mins 44 to bring the team in 16th place.

For the first time we had a team lining up in this event. The three lads involved had all placed top 15 in a Chingford League Senior Mens race from 342 starters recently, and had also helped the Senior Men to 4th place in the Met League a week ago.

Alfie Ward got the club off to an excellent start by running 9 mins 04 for his leg. Alfie is using the cross country season to build endurance for the indoor season. He came in 5th on the first leg. William Muffett ran the second leg in 9 mins 13 to move up to 4th place from the twelve starting teams and we wondered if we were about to secure another set of medals. Aidan O’Driscoll took off on the anchor leg and, having recently run a superb 33 mins 07 for 10k, was in good shape and got us into the podium placings with a fine 8 mins 58 for his leg.

It was an excellent day for our runners who were naturally pleased to be bringing medals back from a regional championship.It goes without saying that the team manager was delighted with the results and in particular the Under 20 men getting those medals. This is an age group where many leave the sport due to other distractions All these lads train with coach Alistair Fabien so many congratulations are also due to Alistair.

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