Men 4th, Women 7th at third Met of season
Tom Frith and Louise Gilbert were Woodford’s first senior finishers at the third Met League of the season, over an unusually short three-lap 7.1k course at Wormwood Scrubs. The squads had also been warned of lots of mud, but most of the course was firm, leading to the men’s and women’s races being won in less than 22 and just over 26 minutes only.
Louise Gilbert was once again first home for our ladies, finishing in 7th position. This was her last Met League of the season as she now starts to concentrate on an indoor season but we hope she is proud of her 3 top-10 Met League finishes this year. It has certainly helped the team’s position significantly! With the flat and fast course suiting her well, Emily Caton further lowered her finishing position to 32th- down from 48th in Met League 1 and 34th in Met League 2. The question now is whether she can achieve a top-30 finish by the end of the season- let’s see!
Aiobheann Pearce ran her first Met League for a few years to finish in a pleasing 58th position. Like training partner Louise, Aiobheann too is concentrating on a fast indoor season and so we may have to wait until Claybury 2026 to see her on the Met League start line again. However, it was great to see her facing the longer distance and adding depth to our ladies squad.
Lydia Doye was 4th home in 98th position, just ahead of Kate Stockings in 102th. Having been very ill for the previous week, Kate ran better than expected and was pleasantly surprised by her position. Dawn Holford once again closed the gap on Lydia and Kate and finished only 20 seconds behind Kate at this fixture. This was her first time in the A-team scoring 6 but, as she continues to gain racing-fitness, this is likely to happen more often and who knows which order Lydia, Kate and Dawn will finish in by the end of the season!
Although starting well, Alisha McArdell was forced to drop-out at the start of the 2nd lap with a hamstring issue meaning that 8 ladies made up our squad. Katie Olert was 7th home in 113th and is another of our athletes who continues to improve her position with each race. Finally, in her first season as a senior, Matilda Frith is proving herself to be an invaluable member of the team and finished 169th.
In the team stakes, Woodford’s women’s team were 7th on the day, while League leaders Victoria Park edged out London Heathside by just 5 points at the top.
On the men’s side, Tom Frith led the team in 9th. Tom was last seen at this venue making his comeback after injury in 2023. He’ll be delighted to be considerably closer to the form that saw him win at the Scrubs in January 2022, on his way to winning the London Marathon mass start later that year. Adam Kirk-Smith was 14th place, an 11-place improvement on Claybury, put down to the more suitable course for his track speed, and longer build up of his training block. Tom Beedell finished 21st. Having run an extended warmup from Paddington his legs felt heavy, leading to an unintentionally slow start, but from the second lap onwards was constantly passing people, including a Heathsider in the final sprint.
You had to wait another 75 seconds for another Woodie, then four came along at once, in the form of Tom Adolphus (55th), Aidan O’Driscoll (56th, and 3rd U20), Dan Steel (57th, and 4th V40), and Angus Holford (58th). Aidan was the happiest of the four, nailing his best Met of his debut senior season, and almost cutting his position from Horsenden Hill in half. Tom may have been fatigued from the notoriously raucous Patent Office Christmas Party in the week, but from being caught by Dan before the final corner, pulled out a strong and long sprint for home to overtake Aidan as well. Dan made his customary conservative start before spending the second and third laps picking off opponents. Adapting perhaps too late to how quickly the race would be over, Angus tried to change gear and stick close behind with Dan in the second half, and managed it as far as the final downhill, when Dan surged away again. All of which is to say, the intra-club element did a lot for carrying Woodies past rival club members.
Deelan Bushdari was 90th, also outsprinting a Heathsider at the last and contributing to our closing the gap on them. Bertie Powell continued to edge up the positions over the season, finishing 102nd despite feeling in worse form than the previous race and being unable to sprint at the end. Harold Wyber was next in, in 131st. The newly minted V40 was fresh, or not so fresh, from finishing 7th for the age group in the South of England Masters championship last week.
The team was closed by a pair of relative youngsters, in U23 Rhys Edwards (147th) outsprinting U20 Vladimir Kalinins (148th) by a second and a half. Vlad, usually unavailable due to football fixtures, noted that although flat, there was a very long drag up the hill! Just missing out on the scoring team was Oliver Clifton (152nd). On the finish line Oliver said this didn’t feel a good run, but he has was injured until recently and was making his senior debut. Many young athletes don’t realise what scalps they’ve taken, and his beating former Ken Bray Trophy champion Simon Beedell, who finished 175th, is a good indicator of the great contribution he can make later in the season or in future years.
We had a gap to the rest of our B team (now sitting 10th in Division 2) that saw Asif Hussain (280th) reverse the finishing order with Phil Doye from the previous fixture. Phil, in just his second race ever for Woodford, was 292nd, improving almost 20 places from his debut. Phil is looking forward to travelling to Lagoa in Portugal later this week, to watch son Joel in the European cross country championships. With Joel needing to avoid racing before the championships, it fell to Chris Hogg (323rd) to lead in the only complete son-and-father team in this fixture’s Woodford squad. Chris had missed the last two due to work, and declares himself “Not as fit as last year, and I wanted to be fitter last year”. We hope that racing himself to fitness is more feasible for the coming fixtures.
The mob was completed by Feroz Manzoor (337th), Paul Stockings (343rd), and Richard Hogg (353rd). All three rejoiced in not being lapped by any but the ‘elite three’ of the Woodford team, and there were another 30 competitors behind. Met League debutant Matt Dickinson unfortunately retired with a hamstring strain after the second lap, and we wish him a speedy recovery.
Woodford’s men’s team placed 4th on the day, and remain 4th in the league while reducing the 100 point gap to 3rd placed London Heathside to 60 points. Highgate Harriers won the match by over 100 points from Victoria Park, with host club Thames Valley Harriers improving from 6th and 9th in the first two fixtures to finish 3rd on home soil. The next major target for the squads is the Essex Championship, on 3rd January at (again) Gloucester Park in Basildon. The deadline for entries is 14th December. Runners, please check your inboxes and let the team managers know if you want to be entered. Supporters, the team will be glad of your presence!