Busy month for the club’s middle distance athletes as cross country racing starts

Our middle distance athletes were busy in November, taking part the English Cross Country Association’s English National Cross Country Relays, the Chiltern Cross Country League (including British Athletics Cross Challenge) and the ESAA Schools Cup.

The English Cross Country Association’s English National Cross Country Relays

The ECCA English National Cross Country Relays were held at Mansfield, Nottingham on Saturday 6^th November 2021. WSEH AC placed an excellent 2^nd in 2 of the races with Rachel Clutterbuck( 5^th fastest time 08.58.75 on the slightly shorter leg 1), Jemima Ridley (4^th fastest 09:22.25 on leg 2) and Freya Ruffels (3^rd fastest 09:06.95 on the final leg) taking 2^nd place behind Vale Royal AC in the U17 Women’s race. In the same race the B team of Jessica Hatch, Keshni Manek and Kiki Webb finished an admirable 7^th.

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The U13 boys’ team of George Hilliar, James Farley and Jake Meyburgh also finished 2^nd, with Jake moving the team from 12^th to 2^nd place whilst running the fastest time (06:40.10) on leg 3. Aaron Shiel and Blas Rivero-Stevenet ran in the B team but unfortunately didn’t have a 3^rd runner to complete the race for the team.

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Our U17 men’s team of Luke Birdseye, George Thomas and Frank McGrath placed 7^th with Luke (08:57.00) running the 2^nd fastest time on the slightly shorter leg 1 and Frank (09:27.50) on the final leg. The B team of Sam Nesbitt, Oliver Emment and Alex Bishop finished 15^th and the C team of Josh Mingoia, Toby Spencer and Daniel Hasan Diaz were 45^th.

The Junior Men’s A team of Matty Smith, Liam Stone and Raphael Rivero-Stevenet finished in 9^th place with the B team (Sam Hodgson, Will Goddard and Tom Chandler) less than 30 seconds behind in 15^th. Liam ran the 2^nd fastest time on leg 2.

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Our Junior Women’s team of Jasmine Young, Katie Clutterbuck and Maya Hodgson placed 9^th with Katie (09:33.95) running the 6^th fastest time on the 2^nd leg.

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The U13 Girls (Phoebe Fuller, Tara Ferguson and Zoe Allan), running in their 1^st ever cross country race at this level finished a fine 13^th with Zoe (08:02.00) recording the 9^th fastest time on leg 3.

The club fielded two U15 Girls’ teams with Ella Davey, Amy Cooper and Ana Passos finishing 25^thand Abigail Farley, Stephanie Massie and Aashni Manek finishing 42^nd. Our U15 Boys’ team of Guy Branston, Ben Dewar and Nathan Rollins finished 30^th.

Sadly, we could only field 2 runners in the Senior Women’s race, but Alex Barbour had an excellent run on leg 1 to finish in 10^th place before handing over to Tilly Compton-Stewart who ran the 2^nd leg.

Full results of the ECCA English National Cross Country Relays are available here.

Race photos from the ECCA English National Cross Country Relays are available here.

The Chiltern Cross Country League (including British Athletics Cross Challenge) 13th November 2021

The 2^nd of 5 Chiltern Cross Country League races took place at Tear Drop Lakes, Milton Keybes on Saturday 13^th November. The event was also one of the 5 British Athletics Cross Challenge events, with some of the UK’s best cross country athletes taking part.

The Chiltern League provides an opportunity for U11 runners to take part. Elloiuse James, Zlata Osipov, Betty Kellerman, Somto Aneke, Chloe Lewis and Zara Davey all took the opportunity to complete their 1^st ever cross country for the club with, Zlata placing 11th, Zara 13^th, Elloiuse 28^th, Betty 32nd, Chloe 34^th and Somto 42nd. Narayan Bhambra was 22nd in the U11 Boy’s race.

Rickie Harvie was the 1^st finisher for the club in the Senior Men’s race in 24^th position. Daniel Brookling was 38^th, Hugo Donovan 44^th, Sebastian Cirillo 73^rd, Toby Rowlands 148^th and Alex Webb 238^th. In the Senior Women’s race, Alex Barbour finished 22^nd (and 3^rd in the Chiltern lague Division 1 race) with Izzy Rayner in 76^th, Juliet Soane 174^th and Vicky Brookling 226^th.

In the joint U20/U17 Women’s race, Jasmine Young (U20) was the club’s 1^st finisher in 32^nd place (5^th in Division 1 of the league and 17^th U20), closely followed by Jess Hatch (U17) in 32^nd (6^th Div 1 and 18^th U17), Keshni Manek (U17) 39^th (7^th Div 1 and 19^th U17). Other finishers were Kiki Webb 47^th, Hannah Woolley 70^th, Milly Murphy 78^th and Lily Rolfe 83^rd.

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Stephanie Massie was the highest finisher in the U15 Girls’ race placing 19^th (11^th Div 1) with Abigail Farley, Amy Cooper and Ella Davey not far behind in 22^nd, 23^rd and 24^th places respectively. Aashni Manek was not far behind in 33^rd, Ana Passos 54^th, Mazie Tearle 69^th and Sorcha Lally 91^st.

In the U13 Girls’ race, Phoebe Fuller was 16^th (8^th Div 1), with Sofia Sabbah 65^th.

The U20/U17 Men’s race had the biggest turnout for the club with 15 representatives. Raphael Rivero-Stevenet was 25^th with Matty Smith not far behind in 33^rd, Luke Birdseye (9th U17) in 37^th, Tom Chandler 40^th, Frank McGrath 55th (19th U17), Will Goddard 57th, Oliver Emment 60th (22nd U17), George Thomas 78th (38th U17), Ben Rowe 81st, Alex Bishop 87th (45th U17), Kirk Finlay 94th, Daniel Hasan Diaz 98th (55th U17), Christopher Baker 100th, Toby Spencer 107th (62nd U17) and Meher Baga 119th (74th U17).

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In the U15 Boy’s race Ben Dewar was the top club finisher in 14th with Alexander Didaskalu in 26th, Guy Branston 32nd, Thomas Taylor 37th, Nathan Rollins 66th, Sohan Nath 73rd, Sam Thuo 80^th.

With Jake Meyburgh competing at the ESAA Schools Cross Country Cup, James Farley was our 1^st finisher in the U13 Boy’s race, coming an excellent 12^th. Aaron Shiel was not far behind in 14^th, Oliver Bedford 39^th and Bruce Gribble 34^th.

Full results are available here.

Photos from the races at Milton Keynes are available here, however, in line with Chiltern XC League’s Photographic Policy, photos were only taken for age-group races U17 and above.

ESAA English Schools Cross Country Cup

Some of the club’s young athletes were also been busy representing their schools in the ESAA English Schools Cross Country Cup regional finals which were also held in November. At the South East event in Tonbridge on 13^th November, Jake Meyburgh (St George’s College) was 1st in the Junior Boys’ race, Tara Ferguson (St George’s College) 5^th in the Junior Girls race and Summer Chapman (Guildford High School) 7^th in the Inter Girls race with both Jake and Summer’s school age group teams qualifying for the national finals to be held in Newquay, Cornwall on 4^th December 2021. In the South West Region competition held in Taunton on the same day, Sam Hodgson (Reading Blue Coat) won the Senior Boys’ race and George Hilliar (Reading Blue Coat) was 7^th in the Junior Boys’ event with their age group teams also qualifying for the final. In the East Central Regional final held on 19^th November Aashni Manek (Wycombe High School) was 12^th in the Inter Girls’ race and her school team also qualified for the final.

Race results available via the links below:

South East Tonbridge Junior Boys

South East Tonbridge Junior Girls

South East Tonbridge Inter Girls

South West Taunton Junior Boys

South West Taunton Senior Boys

East Central Inter Girls