Horsenden Hill Met League 12th of February
The Final Metropolitan League at Horsenden Hill, organised by Mike Barratt and his Ealing
& Middx team had muddy patches to negotiate reports
Alastair Aitken
In the Senior Men's race 277 completed, which was a bit lower turn out than the previous two meets but still
good as 277 completed.
Credit should go to hard working overall organiser Gavin Collett and his band of helpers.
After 500 metres, Scotsman, Chris Smith, took the lead over from Harun Abdi and never looked like being headed
again. Harun Abdi slipped back to fourth place before coming through again to finish second. The 19 year old had learnt to
control his pace, running possibly the best cross-country of his life so far and, another person pleased with his result
was Mohmud Aadan who came in third. He usually expects to finish between 15 and 10 so, his improvement through hard training
has paid off.
Chris Smith has run well this year, after the threat of redundancy in the Civil Service had passed and, feels
training at lunch times has been good. He also thought training with Frank Horwill's group had been beneficial. His club
TVH made a concerted effort to stay in Division One, coming third at Horsenden Hill but unfortunately, they were still
relegated to Division 2. The club did have the satisfaction of topping the Under 13 Boy's league table and were top of the
Under 17's on the day. Two veterans who ran very well considering the high places they got were Ben Pochee of Highgate who
was first M40. He was 11th in 30.50 and Policeman, Iain Campbell, who is 51 was first Over 50 in 36th place.
(First six
in senior race:- 1 Chris Smith (TVH) 29:41; 2 Harun Abdi (NEB) 30:07; 4 Hugh Torry (Serpentine RC) 30.26; 5 James Trapmore
(SB) 30.28 and 6 Daniel Augustus (WG &EL) 30.29.
In the Seniors Woodford Green (6305) held on to first place in the league for the third year but Serpentine
(6227) were threatening behind them with good points in the first three league races.
Serpentine had 71 runners in the race at Alexandra Park and 53 at Horsenden Hill which, was truly
amazing.Serpentines' men 'combined with the Women' won the coveted Howard Williams Trophy ahead of Highgate and Woodford
Green.
Shaftesbury Barnet won the Howard Williams Trophy for Juniors.
The Women's race had four runners racing together till over half way, then Sylvie Lloyd edged ahead, followed
by Becky Glover, Esther Evans, who had only been cycling with no running since her Middlesex county victory in January
and Helen Branco and, as three of those were Serpentine it helped them win the league for the first time.
(100 women
completed. First 4 Sylvie Lloyd (Serp) 22:08; 2 Becky Glover (Serp) 22.12; 3 Esther Evans (Highgate V 35) 22.21, 4 Helen
Branco (Serp) 22.28 First three teams 1 Serpentine RC 1590, 2 Highgate Harriers 1348, 3 Shaftesbury Barnet 1283.
Michael Galligari (16) who won at Alexandra Palace was a convincing winner again in the Under 17's before he came 7th
in the Southern . His goal is to be in the first 8 in the English Schools.
Calligari was not interested in athletics at school till, quite suddenly found he could run well in a schools
race. His main interest was playing the trumpet, which he does in school concerts, jazz concerts and even in church. .
In the Under 13's Danny Rowden went into the lead, after he came through the rugby pitches with three other
runners. He was at the back of the group but then went down the hill in the lead. 13 year old, Rowden did sprinting for
several years at Primary school before he took up running longer distances. He likes track and has run 2:19 for an 800. He
has won several Chingford League cross country races but it was his first victory in he Metropolitan League.
Alastair Aitken
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