News

Young Stags Shine On Home Ground

December 10th 2018, 3:10:46 pm

A strong turnout in Perry Park gave the young athletes the highest points total of the season.

Ella

The third West Midlands Young Athletes League was held on a mostly dry day at Perry Park. A strong turnout put the team as a whole in fourth place on the day but only 18 points behind the team in third.

Our U17 teams continued their successful season challenging for the top honours. The U17 women extended their lead at the top of the league with three athletes in the top 10. Ella Semple was first after a battle with rival Georgina Campbell as the two athletes ran stride for stride for almost the whole race with Ella sprinting up the final hill to take the win. This puts her in the lead overall in the league with two races to go. Ellie Taylor (7th) and Savannah Causer (10th) were the other counters for the team. Chloe Pettit continued her comeback with a fine 15th place and sprinter Jasmin Drummond finished in 24th.

The U17 men faced a very strong Rugby & Northampton team and with only one point between the teams overall it was all to play for.Ryan Shields took on the challenge and went to the front early but the three R&N athletes caught him on the final lap. He finished in fifth but as bottom of the age group it was a good performance. Next home was Jarred Malcolm-Roberts in 11th with Alex Stapleton in 14th the final counter for the team. Some athletes had raced the day before in the inter-counties schools race and others were under the weather so the team were a little under par. However the boys were still in the top finishers with Sam McFall (16th) Hugo Villalobos-Finnegan (18th), Daniel Swain (20th), Nathan Casey (22nd), Michael Gayle (24th) Ben Parker (54th) and Danyl Eyre (59th) it was a good team performance. The team in in second place overall but only by two points.

After a great start in the first race the U15 girls team has been weakened through illness and injury. Emilie Bullock led the team home in fourth place followed by Emmeline Grace (17th), Aliyah Westwood (19th), Lucy Semple (21st) and Olivia Scott (26th) as the five team scorers. Anisa Hamilton (36th), Maya Whitehouse (62nd) and Ria Nahar made up the team.

As with the U15 girls we were missing some key athletes through injury but others were running for the first time this season. Josh Robbins had been dominant in the first two races and although not quite himself today still managed a fourth place finish to maintain his lead overall in the individual competition. Next home was Alex Dickson (20th) with Isaac Searle (24th), Max Price (26th) and Leo Merritt (34th) as team scorers. Daniel Hawes (37th) and Christian Chapajong (44th) returning from illness and injury showed their commitment to the team and will no doubt improve as they get stronger. The team is in third place in the team competition.

As we go lower down the age groups we are not as strong in numbers or league position but these athletes are enjoying the experience and developing in each race. Amira Hamilton continues to be strong and despite running a tough race yesterday ran her best league race coming home in fifth. Next to finish was Tulah Searle (14th) then new girl Tilli-Beau Tyson who, in her first ever race for the Club, was an impressive 24th. The other two scorers for the team were Cayla Wyntner (53) and Belle Skidmore (61). The team finished in sixth place on the day but very close to fourth and fifth some 60 points better than the last race.

Unfortunately the U13 boys were not able to field a complete team last month but December saw a full team once more. Finnan Robbins was an excellent third and Ash Burgess just missed a top ten place in 11th. Team members Charlie Smith (37), Charlie Semple (38) and Thomas Foster (83) completed the scoring and the team was 4th on the day.

For the first time this season we had full U11 teams in both the boys and girls races. After missing the last race Lexie Robins was back and a strong race put her sixth out of 128 girls. Cassie Pearson again improved her position to finish 35th. Livia Casey was 64th, Kira Mitchell 68th Izzy Spencer 78 and Tessa Burgess 80th completed the team.

We had our highest number of U11 boys running for some time with 11 boys running for the Club. Simeon Swain was first home in 50th with Oliver Cresswell 54th, Daniel Ryan 64th, Matthew Sharpe 71st and Oliver Shortman 72nd as team scorers. Our other competitors were Jack Hendley-Smith (78th), Kristian Corbin (87th), Henry Baker-Yearwood (97th), Irtiza Ahmad (98th), Jacob Bennett (103) and finally Samuel Thompson (113th).

As this was a home fixture we were responsible for the organisation and Eddie Cockayne masterminded a well run fixture. Our thanks go to to him and all the other parents and club members for all their help. Yet again Bill Hollingshead was there with his camera capturing all our athletes and these photographs can be found on the Birchfield Harriers Facebook page.

The next race is 13 January at Abingdon Park.