Hampshire League Race 3 3 December Popham
The good form continues.
Its two years since we
last raced at Popham, last years event was snowed off
twice! During
the week the weather forecast wasnt great high winds and wet, but
thankfully we were spared the rain and although it was blustery we never
got the high winds that were originally forecast.
Once again our under-13
girls got us off to a fantastic start. Grace Copeland replicated her
excellent second place at Goodwood. She was involved in a three-way
scrap at the head of the field. That Hampshire win will come! We also
saw a good performance from Maddie Williams. Unfortunately we only had
two under-13s girls this time around
so, sadly, no team score.
Next up were the under-13
boys. We had three racers this time, having lost Tom Bourne as he was
sitting an exam. After two wins in a row for Piers Copeland he was going
for the hat-trick. Piers had to settle for second place behind Jack
Boswell (of Aldershot, Farnham & District) but Piers is still riding
high at the top of the averages with more than half of the season run.
Ryan Long took on cross-country running for the winter in a bid to
improve his stamina for his 800m when multi-eventing on the track in the
summer. Well, its definitely working. Ryan had his best race yet and he
even caught his team-mate Tom Boulton in the final 100m of the race. Our
three lads scored as eighth team on the day.
One of our strongest
categories is the under-15 girls. We were able to welcome back Sharon
Hutchings, who was unwell, so unable to race in the previous Hampshire
race she returned on the back of an imperious victory in the Wessex
League the previous Sunday at Salisbury. This time Sharon was pushed to
the limit to claim the honour of being first Wimborne home. Just five
seconds separated Sharon from Abbie at the finish. Abbie was having her
best Hampshire race of the season so far, as were the next two red
shirts home Chloe Morris and Ella Hearne. Ella has made fantastic
progress since the start of this season, and she was involved in a red
duel with Charlotte Bourne a mere two seconds separated them at the
end.
For the second race in a
row, we were only able to field one under-15 boy. Jordan Symington who
raced superbly the previous weekend at Salisbury and had another great
race on Thursday in a schools cross-country had to sit this one out.
This left Ryan Walbridge as our sole representative. Ryan arrived here
in top form a win in last weeks Wessex League race, and on Thursday
night he smashed the Wimborne 5k time trial course record. He had
another fine run at Popham and equalled his highest ever finish in the
Hampshire League.
The under-17s were next
with Callum Kennedy flying the flag for us here. Callums excellent
season continues, although having picked up a heavy cold during the week
he wasnt quite able to equal his performance at Goodwood or his fine
win at Salisbury the previous Sunday. His run here showed plenty of
character though.
We have really struggled to
field a womens team (3 runners) in either cross-country league this
season. Weve only managed it once this season in five attempts. Lynn
Hutchings has, of course, been an ever-present and has headed the
Wimborne ladies team home, a pattern that was repeated here. This time
around it looked that we might field that elusive ladies team as both
Rachel Gladdis and Becka Hughes also lined up on the start line.
Unfortunately it was not to be. Becka had hurt her back that morning
moving some furniture at home, she was lining up on the strict
understanding that she was to pull up if the back gave her trouble.
Unfortunately Becka was unable to finish the race. However, were
delighted that Rachel, having invested in a pair of XC spikes, has
turned out to be a Hampshire League ever-present so far. Rachel rewarded
us with her best cross-country race yet.
The last event of the day
was the senior mens race. While we were able to welcome back Graeme
Furley, we had lost Graham Whiffen. Graham has broken a bone in his foot
in an accident at work and he will be in plaster until January
we wish
him well with his recovery. Its great to see that Baz and Pete
Kingswell-Farr, who have made their WAC XC debuts this year, appear to
have got the XC bug, and were back for more. First red home was Graeme
Furley, with Baz and Mark Copeland our next two, having swapped places
since Goodwood. The duel between Baz and Mark will hopefully keep the
pair of them on their toes for the rest of the season. John Hutchings
and Ian Kennedy were next Wimborne runners, both improving significantly
on their results of a month ago at the last Hampshire League race. Next
in was Gerry Hutchings, Gerry has been struggling with a hamstring
injury which has meant that he has been unable to train recently, we
were delighted to have him back. As mentioned, the team was completed by
Pete who, although he has raced in the Wessex League, raced for the
first time in the Hampshire League and he now has set down his marker.
WACers times and results were:
Under-13 Girls (69 finishers)
2 Grace Copeland 10:57
32 Maddie Williams 12:43
Under-13 Boys (69 finishers)
8th team on the day
2 Piers Copeland 10:02
32 Ryan Long 11:32
36 Tom Boulton 11:37
Under-15 Girls (64 finishers) 5th
team on the day
13 Sharon Hutchings 15:10
14 Abbie Hine 15:15
31 Chloe Morris 16:03
40 Ella Hearne 16:37
41 Charlotte Bourne 16:39
Under-15 Boys (57 finishers)
5 Ryan Walbridge 12:58
Under-17 Boys (38 finishers)
17 Callum Kennedy 17:21
Senior Women (86 finishers)
43 Lynn Hutchings 25:23
66 Rachel Gladdis 27:53
Senior Men (202 finishers) (Wimborne
6th in Div. 2, Wimborne Vets 5th in Div 2)
58 Graeme Furley 31:08
121 Baz Barry 34:42
123 Mark Copeland 34:48
133 John Hutchings 36:00
155 Ian Kennedy 37:20
171 Gerry Hutchings 39:20
192 Pete Kingswell-Farr 41:26
Full results for the Hampshire League
will be found at
www.athletics.hampshire.org.uk/events/hxcl.html
