Connnie Lewis |
Under 13 boys Robert Hughes, Bill Hughes, Joe Aherne, Joe Cochrane and James McCarthy. |
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Click on photos to enlarge - use browser back button to return Pictures by Gary Mitchell and Steve Perkin | ||
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Connnie Lewis |
Under 13 boys Robert Hughes, Bill Hughes, Joe Aherne, Joe Cochrane and James McCarthy. |
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Click on photos to enlarge - use browser back button to return Pictures by Gary Mitchell and Steve Perkin | ||
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Click on photos to enlarge - use browser back button to return Pictures by Steve Perkin |
Chiltern Harriers young athletes had their most successful ever day at this first major running event of the autumn at Rushmoor Arena in Aldershot on Saturday.
In ideal still, mild conditions the Chiltern teams performed admirably with three top ten places, including silver medals for the Under 13 boys team and the fastest lap prize for Under 13 girl Connie Lewis.
The first race was the Under 13 girls, where teams of three tackle a 2.3K course round the fast undulating circuit. Chiltern had four teams entered in the 53 team strong field. The A team finished in an excellent fifth place. On the fast first lap Emma Barraclough, suffering from a cold, ran 9.11 to bring the team home in 22nd place. Connie Lewis took over to run a sensational second leg in 8.13 to move the team up to fourth place - this proved to be the fastest of the 169 legs run. First year Hannah Morton ran very maturely on the last leg, losing only one place to run 8.55. Connie won Saucony vouchers and conducted a post race interview with Athletics Weekly.
Elsewhere there were great runs in the other teams. In the B team, Claudia McInerney suffered a stitch and ran 10.09. Rosalind Firth took over and ran a brilliant leg to run 8.46, the 21st fastest of the day. On the third leg, Alice Hall confirmed her good recent form to run 9.04 and bring the team home in a creditable 22nd place. The C team consisted of Evie Gardner (9.24), Claudia Jones (10.07), and Amy Fawcett (10.35) and finished in 41st and the D team of Maria Slade (10.09), Isabel Heinel (10.21) and Caitlin Curran (10.57) finished 48th.
Next up were the Under 13 boys. With one of the leading runners Andrew Stenning out with injury, hopes were modest but the boys ran out of their skin to pick up an unexpected but entirely merited and hard-fought silver medal. The team consisted of four, plus Bill Hughes running just one leg of the incomplete B team. There were 33 complete teams and Joe Cochrane ran the first leg in fine form to come home in sixth place in 10.49 (16th best time of the day). Bill Hughes, coming back from knee surgery in the summer also ran a great leg to finish 13th in 10.59. The next lap saw James McCarthy run the sixth fastest second leg in 11.06 to maintain sixth place. Joe Aherne ran the second fastest third leg in 11.11 to bring the team home in fourth place and with a run of immense character Robert Hughes managed to hold off the Windsor fourth leg runner and overtake the Herne Hill runner to achieve a superb second place for the team. The final time was 44.32 with the next three teams less than three seconds behind.
The Under 15 girls team had three first years gaining experience and from a field of 58 complete teams the Chiltern girls finished a very creditable 32nd. Amy Harris ran 12.11, Ellie Jones 12.21 and Alice Heinel 12.33 to record a solid set of performances.
Hopes were high for the Under 15 boys team but various factors conspired to mean they finished in sixth place, slightly down on expectations. On the first leg Michael Goddard suffered a fall early on and brought the team home in 14th in a time of 10.04. George Gillingwater ran 10.11 to move the team up to 8th. Dan Barraclough, suffering from a cold, ran 10.26 to maintain 8th place and Jack Dutton ran 10.10 to move up to sixth.
In the incomplete B team, Ben Whitney (10.31), Jimmy Davies (10.47) and Alex Johnson (11.03) all ran well to confirm that the boys Under 15 squad is one of the strongest in the south.