Wessex League XC Ham Hill 21 February 2010
Sharon
rediscovers her mojo as our juniors turn on the style.
After the really dismal
weather we endured at our last Wessex League Race at Salisbury it was
good to turn up at Ham Hill and see a bit of sunshine. The course itself
is in a beautiful setting, but it is a tough one. The races are made up
of a combination of long and short laps. The short lap is a relatively
benign one, as long as you remember to duck under the bough of that
tree! The longer lap, which the under-15 and upwards have to do, is
something else again. The surface is really muddy in some places and
stony in others, which makes choosing the right footwear a bit of a
lottery. There is a horrendous climb. The descent down to a stile is
just as challenging as you run through a gulley which is deep with mud
but has great lumps of rock in it. Very tricky, you have to take off
your racing head for this section and just make sure your clear this
part of the course without incident. There is plenty of opportunity to
push later on in the lap.
The first race of the day
was the under-11s, who did one short lap. We had two runners in this age
group, Grace and Pippa. Grace fairly flew around the course, third
runner in, second girl. A great performance as Grace is one of the
younger runners in the field. Pippa puts in solid and increasingly more
confident performances too. Both girls are on target for Wessex League
Fidelity awards with just one race remaining.
Next up were the under-13
girls. Alivia was unable to take part as she had injured a knee playing
netball but our three other mainstays of the u13 girls team Abbie Hine,
Chloe and Sharon were joined by debutant Abbie Logan. The girls had
two laps to do. At the end of lap 1 a group of three had broken from the
pack and there was a mighty roar from WAC supporters as two of them were
in Wimborne red (Abbie Hine and Sharon). On the climb at the start of
the second lap Sharon was looking strong as they tackled the gradient.
Chloe and Abbie Logan were in the thick of it in the pack as they all
disappeared over the hill for a second time around. With the runners out
of sight we waited for them to emerge once more. Sharon was the first to
come into view, we were willing her on as she ran that final 400m to the
finish line. Sharon won by a handsome margin (20 seconds) from Alex
Phillips of Poole Runners who had managed to split our top two.
Abbie Hine had to settle
for third place on this occasion. Abbie is running with such confidence
that we have to remind ourselves that this is Abbies debut season and
she has made extraordinary progress. Third place is her highest placing
so far in a cross-country league race. For Sharon a win couldnt have
been much sweeter. She had an excellent track & field season over the
summer, and she started really brightly when the cross-country season
opened. In November Sharon was diagnosed with bronchitis and has found
it a frustrating time since then. The first signs that things were
improving came at Salisbury in the Hampshire League race on 13 February
when she finished that race very strongly. At Ham Hill she started
strongly but finished stronger. This is Sharons first race win in a
cross-country league race and it could hardly have been more emphatic.
With Sharon and Abbie both selected to represent their county next
month, the timing of these results could not be better. Chloe put in
another strong performance which ensured that our girls claimed the team
prize on the day. For Abbie Logan it was a little bit of a baptism of
fire as her first league race was on one of the tougher courses. For
sure she will have gained greatly from her experience and she has been
selected to represent
Dorset
in the South West Schools XC championships in Truro. With one race to go
it is worth looking at the averages to see who will be challenging for
medals at the end of the season. Sharon is currently lying second in her
age group, with Abbie Hine 4th and Chloe 7th.
Next race up was the
under-13 boys. We have a number of strong runners in this age group, but
unfortunately only two of them made it to Ham Hill, which meant that no
matter how well Ryan and Piers ran we wouldnt be able to score points
as a team. Last time out Ryan had recorded his first league win, this
time he had to settle for second, just 2 seconds behind the race winner.
With two 2nd places and a win already, Ryan has an
unassailable lead in the averages so will win his age group in the
Wessex League. Piers had another excellent run, he finished 5th
but was only 12 seconds behind Ryan. Piers currently lies 3rd
in the averages, a remarkable achievement as he is only just 11
years-old which gives him two more years in this age group. Both Piers
and Ryan are on target for Wessex League Fidelity awards and have been
selected to represent Dorset in the Inter-Counties Championships.
We were a little thin on
the ground in the under-15s races. With just one girl Alex Vaughan-Johncey
and one boy Callum Kennedy competing for us. It was terrific to see
Alex back out there again. She has been dogged with bad luck this
season, sometimes injured, but at Parliament Hill when she was good to
go she missed the start by 5 minutes due to train cancellations. Alex
is 10th in the averages with one race to go. Callum had a
decent race and appears to have shaken off that severe cough and cold
that ruled him out of Parliament Hill and set him back for a while. He
currently lies second in the averages but has some work to do in the
final race if he wants to stay there, he is another of those on target
for a Wessex League Fidelity award and chosen to represent Dorset in the
Inter-Counties.
In the senior ladies race
we were frustratingly one short of fielding a team. This was probably
the best race of the season for both of our entrants Lynn and Paula.
Lynn is in 4th place in the averages for the senior women
with Paula 7th. Paula and Lynn are both on target for Wessex
Fidelitys. Our target for next year has to be to consistently get a full
ladies team out there.
We have managed to field a
full mens team in every Wessex League race. Our team had a very
familiar look about it with the usual suspects performing, but we were
joined by brand new WACer and race debutant Steve Headley. After Steve
had recced the route prior to racing he must have wondered what he had
let himself in for! Graham, as is often the way in the Wessex League,
led the charge for Wimborne. In the averages Graham lies 8th,
Ian 13th, Rich House (who didnt run at Ham Hill) 16th
and Paul 17th.
Just one more Wessex
League race to come at Avon Heath.
WACers times and results were:
Under-11s (10 finishers)
3 Grace Copeland 5:41 (2nd girl
overall)
8 Pippa Hine 6:30 (7th
girl)
Under-13 Girls (10 finishers)
1st team
1 Sharon Hutchings 11:28
3 Abbie Hine 12:10
6 Chloe Morris 12:39
8 Abbie Logan 13:24
Under-13 Boys (12 finishers)
2 Ryan Walbridge 10:15
5 Piers Copeland 10:27
Under-15 Girls (10 finishers)
9 Alex Vaughan-Johncey 18:35
Under-15 Boys (9 finishers)
5 Callum Kennedy 13:55
Senior Women (11 finishers)
5 Lynn Hutchings 22:58
10 Paula Hine 28:37
Senior Men (24 finishers) (Wimborne
3rd team, and 3rd Vets team))
10 Graham Whiffen 44:45
13 Ian Kennedy 47:31
15 Paul Hine 48:59
19 Steve Headley 51:38
20 Gerry Hutchings 52:41
Full results for the Wessex League will
be found at
www.wessexleague.com
