Juniors - Surrey Cross Country League, Match 3, Coulsdon and Wimbledon, Saturday 13th January 2018

Another weekend, another cross country race. The Junior Men/Boys turned out at Coulsdon in what was actually relatively benign weather, albeit a little windy. With only one race for all 110 Juniors over the hilly one lap course, initially it was a little difficult to make out places.However, along the ridge for the long run-in for home our first athlete was a tired but determined Timin Kanani, claiming 7th place and 4th U17, followed closely by Blaine Robinson in 15th overall place to secure first U13 position by a massive 28 seconds.The ever present Joseph O'Clery ran well to come home in 25th, with Zayd Addicott soldiering on throughout the race, finishing in 97th, despite bad cramp.But along with Blaine's 1st place, the standout run of the day came from Max Simpson. Running his first ever cross  country race and the only U11 in the field, Max had a blinder to finish 86th. Had Max scored for the U13's he would have been 27th out of 46, and he would have given Belgrave 20 points in the U13 team.Racing against seventeen year olds could have been a daunting prospect but Max, staring at most of them at kneecap height on the start line, looked as if he was enjoying every second of it, finishing like a train. Another star for the future I suspect.Over in Wimbledon, where Belgrave hosted the Division One Ladies race, our first Junior Lady home was Maddy Whitman, placing 12th U15G, although she actually scored 7th U15G, with one of the other teams deciding that it was a good idea to have their entire Junior Ladies squad of twelve runners made up of second claim (and consequently non-scoring) athletes. They subsequently repeated the same madness at Coulsdon in the Boys race, with their only Junior representative running second claim/non-scoring. Quite bizarre.Behind Maddy came another ever present, Juliette Michot, placing 36th U15 (again, 29th U15 scoring athlete), and behind Juliette in 66th position, having her first ever run-out over the country, was sprinter Adeola Warner, one place ahead of Freya Marney. Neither of them like the mud, (Adeola was a bit confused when she couldn't find an all-weather surface) so well done to both of them for turning out and supporting their Club and their team mates.