Inspired by all the virtual racing that has gone on in the past few weeks, the Belgrave junior engaged in a virtual sparring match with WG&EL’s juniors. There were separate boys and girls competition across the U13, U15 and U17 age categories. The rules were simple: record a 2.5km run anytime, anywhere between Friday 29th May and Monday 1st June and post it on Strava. The U17 runners had to stretch to 4km.

The teams were assumed to be made up of 4 runners. Where there were less than four finishers per club, team numbers were made up by awarding points equivalent to the position after the last actual scorer in each category. For example, if the last finisher of a race was 10th, 11 points to awarded per missing scorer to make up a team of 4.

U13 boys

It is fair to say the youngest Bels dominated the competition in their category. The fastest clocking over 2.5km from WGE was Rudy Parker Bayes’ 9:55 while Seb Cockerell led home his squad in 9:16. Yediael Yarred and Lucas Ebert also ducked under the 9:55 mark just ahead of Oliver Cunningham who hit it dead-on. Great work! This is especially impressive as WGE had two more scorers than us. 1-0 for Belgrave!

U13 girls

Unfortunately, our young Belles were overpowered by the huge numbers (and quality) of WG&EL. Abigail Reid led the charge with a hugely impressive 8:58 run and WG&EL put six more runners in front of our first scorer. In this case, it was Daisy Larkin who was first ‘across the line’ for us in 10:52. Daisy previously completed the 26.2 challenge for charity and once again put her best foot forward to help out her team. She received strong back up from Jessica Wilson, Sophie Parry and Fiona Ebert who all recorded fine runs as well. Now it’s a race: 1-1!

U15 boys

We only had three scorers for us here, but they are all solid performers on race day. Sadly, the Juxon twins (Monty and Jago) were only able to grasp 5th and 6th place with their respective 9:14 and 9:17 clockings. WG&EL’s Nathan Wright must have had a great day - he put down an 8:15 for the fastest short leg of the entire competition. Stefan Parry managed to edge out Joseph Arnold by one second! That would have made for a thrilling sprint finish in a real-life race. WG&EL take the lead: 1-2.

U15 girls

Each team fielded 4 runners for this one, and it was a pretty tight team race! WG&EL got a 1-2 but we managed to tightly pack three of our runners - Lucy Jodrell, Lina Colas and Palmer Newson - in before their next two athletes. Ella Gill was only 4s away from cutting into their score and deserves an honorable mention for a strong run too. It’s a tie as each team scores 18 points! The score remains 1-2.

U17 boys

These lads had almost double the distance to cover, and in this race it was three of us against one of them. However, WG&EL’s Rhys Edwards scored a fantastic 13:52 time to claim the individual win. Behind him, Eddie Jodrell dove under 15mins, Luca Barac managed to sneak under 17mins and Curtis O’Keeffe was well under 18mins with his 17:41. That’s a team win for the Bels though! It’s even again: 2-2!

U17 girls

Maddy Whitman left very little room for debate here. Her stellar 14:36 clocking over 4km put her well over 2.5mins ahead of WG&EL’s first scorer! Ellen Savidge and Jess Adams packed very tightly together and came through just ahead of Freya Marney who ran a very respectable 18:25. With two finishers each, this is another tie! The final score is 2-2!