Junior middle distance roundup, January 2019
It's been a while since we've posted anything for the Juniors, so here goes.
London Youth Games
First up is the London Youth Games X/C Championships at Parliament Hill on 17th November. 1st U13 Boy was our very own Monty Juxon, followed in 22nd place by brother Jago.
Terrific - that's two years in a row that Belgrave has won this particular race.
Burgess Parkrun - 15th December
The Burgess Parkrun on 15th December saw six Belgrave Juniors and their ver Senior Coach represent Belgrave en masse. First Belgravian home was that old favourite, Unknown Runner, AKA Timin Kanani , who decided to leave his bar code at home. Our best guess is that he ran 17:40, and would have placed 5th, and first U20 Male.U14 Boy. Standout run of the day was Maddy Whitman, only 11 seconds and 3 places behind Blaine and first overall Lady, despite being in the 11-14 age category.
For the Senior ladies competing out there on the day, that's gotta hurt!
Oliver Cunningham made our second U14 boy in 27th place, with Alex Kabysh placing 75th. Freya Marney came home in 59th, and a very tired Coach staggered over the line in 38th, easily his worst run ever at Burgess, to the sound of much derision from the assembled Juniors later. It's worth remembering that almost 300 runners competed over the 5k course that day, so our Juniors shone and were a great advert for the Club.
Surrey XC champs
The County X/C Champs on 5th January were the next outing for the Juniors. Split between Surrey and Middlesex, it's always a challenge to manage, but Coach Chantelle was there for the Surrey's and Coach Terry for the Middlesex.
At Lloyd Park, Cosima Reed was our only representative in the Girls U13 race and she finished a very creditable 73rd in her first ever race for Belgrave in a County Championship.
We had 3 Belgravians in the U13Boys, with Monty Juxon 6th in 10:26, and brother Jago 16th (after a week of not feeling great), and Seb Cockerell 51st.
Monty walked off with yet another Surrey vest and will be competing in the Inter Counties next month. With his main focus this year being track 1500m, Blaine Robinson had a run out in the U15 Boys, finishing 31st, despite being in his first year in that age category, and Freya Marney managed 28th place in the U17 Ladies.
Middlesex XC champs
Across at the Middlesex Champs we had a full team out for the U15 Girls and finished a terrific 4th team place, with Maddy Whitman in 5th place, Isla Walrock (who trains for swimming, not athletics - what would she be like if she did?) in 7th, and Juliette Michot in 34th. Well done Ladies. In the U13 Boys the youngest competitor in the race, Alex Kabysh (what bad luck, being born on 31st August!) placed 31st.
Surrey League, Mitcham Common
With the Surrey X/C League Ladies race postponed until March because of the objections of a local farmer (that's got to be a first) we only had our Boys out for Match 3 at Mitcham Common. With Joseph O'Clery now running for the Seniors, (and finishing 185th in Division One of one of the toughest X/C leagues in the country) we had a mere 4 Juniors athletes. But what a bunch! All four ran their socks off in the U13 Boys category and finished an amazing second place, moving Belgrave up the league to an even more amazing second place overall. Jago Juxon ran out of his skin to finish 3rd, one second ahead of twin Monty. And Seb Cockerell had his best race to date in a Belgrave vest, again only one second behind fellow Belgravian Oliver Cunningham who placed 17th. Terrific team spirit from the Boys, who are clearly running for each other. We need to hold that together for the 4th and final race at Lloyd Park in Croydon on 9th February if we are to hold off Herne Hill whom we have displaced in 2nd spot and who are only 12 points behind us.