Monthly Archives: October 2013

UK Cross Challenge – Bristol

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With “The Storm” forecast for later in the day, dire warnings of “Get Home Quickly” were issued from Anna as we set out on the long trek to Bristol.

The trip out kept dry, but the winds were building, and half way around our course walk through, the heavens opened. Though heavy the downpour was short lived and by the time Robbie was warmed up and ready to go the sun was breaking through the clouds once more.

After an initial stumble Robbie is back up and in with the crowd as they race down the starting straight.

Being bottom year, the UK Cross Challenge is going to be very hard for Robbie this year, so he needs to concentrate on specific targets, not wins as such. With that in mind the Target for Bristol was a top 10 finish, which unfortunately didn’t happen with Robbie finishing in 12th place, that said it was an excellent performance against some very strong opposition. With the likes of last years U13’s winner, Matt Rawlings, finishing 8th, and Piers Copeland, upper age group but an old adversary of Robbie’s from 2 years ago, finishing 9th. It shows that 12th was in fact not such a bad position after all.

The Table below shows the first 12 runners from this year, with equivalent times for that position (Not Runner) last year.

Pos. Name Team Time 2012
Time
1 Ben Dijkstra Leicester 12:56.0 13:38.0
2 Will Crisp Swindon 13:40.0 13:48.0 
3 Will Stockley Bath 13:44.0 13:54.0
4 Dylan Leisinger Hastings 13:52.0 14:12.0 
5 Chey Kemp Reading 14:02.0 14:21.0 
6 Archie Stoneman Exeter 14:04.0 14:29.0 
7 Jaymee Dormoney Salisbury 14:09.0  14:36.0 
8 Matt Rawlings Reading 14:12.0  14:38.0 
9 Piers Copeland Wimborne 14:15.0  14:47.0 
10 John Howorth Bath 14:21.0  14:56.0 
11 Robert Howorth Bath 14:22.0  15:08.0 
12 Robbie Coupland AFD 14:28.0 15:12.0 

As you can see from above, this years race was quite a bit quicker than last years, but that happens a lot with Cross Country, it would have been nice to see Jack Boswell (7th last year) there again this year, just to see how he responded to Ben Dijkstra’s outstanding performance.

Aldershot District Inter School XC (Match 2)

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All the same rules, and competition layout’s as match 1, with Years 7 & 8 racing against each other, years 9 & 10 racing against each other and year 11 racing against themselves, only incorporated in to the year 9 & 10 race. So two races for 3 age groups over 2 sexes = 4 races 🙂

Boys Years 9,10 & 11.

Robbie approaching the last corner on a quick but hilly course.

Sorry all, I don’t have a full list of results, apparently they are subject to high security restrictions and are only available to school PE departments, if I manage to hack the SPE Database and pull down the full set of results I’ll post them up here, I promise. Do me a favour and keep an eye out for the Teachers in Black suits and Sunglasses.

Course was quite short, but contained a nasty hill which had to be negotiated twice. Distance approx. 2.3k.

Much like Race 1. Robbie finished 2nd overall, 1st in the year 8/9 section. AFD team mates Charlie Mills (1st Overall, 1st Year 11) and Reece Webber (6th Overall) were once again present.

Hampshire League (Match 1)

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Robbie running lower age group for his first ever U15 Cross Country with his target position firmly set in the top 20. Representative’s from Reading, Wimborne, Southampton, AFD, Camberley, Fleet and many others made up a very strong field, so top 20 was a high standard to target. As it happens it was high but certainly not unobtainable, with the AFD boys running a great race, both at an individual level and as a team.

Details aren’t readily available as yet, but I will add  more when they are, as a taster, here is what I know.

1st Jack Boswell (AFD) – 11:56

4th Jake Cvetkovic (AFD) – 12:35

10th Robbie Coupland (AFD) – 12:54

AFD Race for the Hill

Well done boys….

Jack Boswell starts pushing for the lead… (Who is that dodgy bird in the cap and blue jacket loitering around in the background?)

And Robbie Hits the Hill…

Robbie hits the hill at Prospect Park.

U15 Boys (Note: The first four Runners for a club, make up the team.)
Team Position: Equal 1st

Position Name Time
1 Jack Boswell 11:56
4 Jake Cvetkovic 12:35
10 Robbie Coupland 12:54
14 Oliver Percival 13:13

 

Aldershot District Inter School XC (Match 1)

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The first Inter School XC of the season, at least for Robbie, was held at Robert Mays school in Hook. A quick field based course, incorporating 3 laps of a 1k circuit.

This season a number of these races will be combined age group races, with age group positions being sorted out post race, and mixed positions being issued on the day.

Today’s race saw Years 9, 10 and 11 combine together in one race, with the results feeding in to separate performances for the year 9 and 10 age group and the year 11 age group.

Robbie finished 2nd overall with an approx. time of 10:20.0 (TBC neither Robbie nor I managed to start our watches on time). 2nd place overall provided Robbie with 1st place in the year 9/10 category with AFD team mate Charlie Mills taking the 1st place slot (overall and for year 11). In addition to Charlie and Robbie AFD team mate Reece Webber was also top 10 placed, finishing in 7th place overall (year 9/10 placing TBC).

North Hants Inter School XC (Match 1)

National Road Relays 2013

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It doesn’t seem long since the last National Road Relays, oh it isn’t due to weather they were run some 6 months ago, not a year ago. But irrelevant to timings and weather predicaments from last season, this years went ahead on time and as smoothly as can be expected. The rain may not have caused a cancellation this year, but it certainly showed it’s face a wet and muddy site had some parental taxi services concerned that they may not be able to leave the car park by the end of the day.

On a personal note…

Robbie had an excellent run, picking up the rains from Jake Cvetkovic, who completed the first leg in 9th place with an excellent time of 12:57, he pushed forward to complete the second leg in 13:14 seconds pulling AFD up in to 5th position, the last leg was run in the awesome time of 12:21 by Jack Boswell, this being the second fastest individual leg by an U15 boy on the day. Despite the excellent performances of all three runners it was not quite enough to get in to the medal standings, the team managing 4th place. Still 4th place in the National Road Relays is an excellent result in anyone’s book, and at an individual level the boys all had outstanding performances.

The last hill before the finishing straight, with Robbie working hard and chasing down the 4th place runner.

A complete breakdown of AFD performances.

A good showing, in numbers, for AFD with all groups entering multiple teams.

U13 Girls entered  3 complete teams and placed 12th, 32nd & 42nd. The fastest individual leg result by an AFD runner was set by Daisy Corbett in 15:02. (15th Individual)

U13 Boys entered 3 complete teams and placed 12th, 19th and 23rd. The fastest individual leg result by an AFD runner was set by Marcus Shantry in 14:00. (5th Individual)

U15 Girls entered 3 complete teams and placed 5th, 19th and 32nd. The fastest individual leg result by an AFD runner was set by Niamh Brown in 13:57. (6th Individual)

U15 Boys entered 2 complete teams and 1 incomplete team, they placed 4th, 30th. The fastest individual leg result by an AFD runner was set by Jack Boswell in 12:21. (2nd Individual)

U17 Women entered 3 complete teams and placed 4th, 19th and 28th. The fastest individual leg result by an AFD runner was set by Eloise Milbourn in 14:08. (13th Individual)

U17 Men entered 1 complete team which placed 2nd (our only team medal of the event) and an incomplete team. The fastest individual leg result by an AFD runner was set by Jack Crabtree in 11:38. (2nd Individual)