Monthly Archives: November 2013

Hampshire League, (3 of 5) – Popham

By | |
Leave a comment

Lots of Photo’s were taken on the day, take a look here.

http://hammy8241.smugmug.com/2013-Races/Hampshire-CrossCounty-League-M/Under-15-Boys

A disappointing day for the wRECker. After finishing 10th in both Race 1 and 2 he was hoping to step up a spot and finish in single figures in the third Hampshire League race. The conditions were good, the day was fine the start was excellent, and in general the race was good, running in 9th place for nearly the entire race Robbie was looking good, holding off Wimborne rival Pierce Copeland and looking strong, right up to the finishing straight. The Popham finishing straight is around 800m long and slightly down hill, a great opportunity for the runners to throw everything they have left in to the finish. Robbie hit the straight in 9th, but was taken apart along the straight by 7 runners, ultimately finishing the race in 16th place. The time was good, the run was good but the position was something of a disaster. Heads up for Bournemouth and Race 4, he is determined to get those places back. On a positive note the AFD team won once again, making a series win look very possible.

About 1k in and fighting hard.

British Athletics Cross Challenge – Liverpool (Match 2)

By | | ,
Leave a comment

A long trip up to Liverpool for the big British Athletics Cross Country Challenge event, Liverpool is one of the biggest events in the calendar, attracting 130 runners in the U15 boys event. It was always going to be hard, but the course itself was fairly flat, fairly good underfoot and fairly short, a meer 3km in length. At U15B AFD only had 3 representative runners; Jack Boswell, Robbie Coupland and Harry Grace. All three ran really well and ultimately got good times and placings with Jack finishing 4th (0:9:42), Robbie finishing 42nd (0:10:28) and Harry finishing 68th (0:10:56).

Fighting off the challengers on the way to the finish line.

Hampshire Team Selection Confirmed.

By | |
Leave a comment

The names of the eight boys selected to represent Hampshire at U15’s in the Southern Inter County XC Championships have been finalised and confirmed today. Robbie was selected as the 5th runner, and the team is looking really strong with a big AFD presence.

Team:
Jack Boswell (AFD)
Sam Costley (Southampton)
Jake Cvetkovic (AFD)
James Beeks (Basingstoke)
Robbie Coupland (AFD)
Luke Powell (Southampton)
Michael Ilott (IOW)
Alex Forster (New Forest Juniors)

Best of luck to them, and the other Hampshire teams at the Shuttleworth Park, Bedfordshire on Saturday 14th December.

Robbie amongst his U13 team mates at last years SEAA Inter County Championships.

Aldershot District Schools AA – District Selection Race

By | | ,
Leave a comment

Today ADSAA held their annual selection race, the top 16 boys / girls in each section will be nominated to represent Aldershot in the Hampshire County Selection race.

The age categories are Junior (Years 8 & 9) and Intermediate (Years 10 & 11) meaning that Robbie is running as the upper age group in the Junior section. Although the event was a schools event, not a club event, there were obviously a lot of familiar AFD faces in the line ups, with AFD runners coming 1st and 2nd in the Junior girls, 1st and 2nd in the Junior boys, 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th in the Intermediate boys and I think 1st and 2nd in the Intermediate girls.

Robbie secured selection in to the District team finishing the race in first place, followed in to the finishing line by AFD team mate Billy Smith, with James Hier from AFD grabbing the last selection place in 16th position. Robbie’s Calthorpe School team mate Kye Buckley finished a very respectable 7th place securing selection in to the District team.

Robbie’s Race
Position: 1st
Time: 11:32
Distance: 3k

Salesian College showing an abundance of runners.

Robbie pulling away at the front.

.

Hampshire League (2 of 5) – Goodwood

By | |
Leave a comment

A very wet day today, the rain came down hard and constant and everyone was soaked to the skin. Trex who tagged along today looked like a drowned rat, and to some extent I wish I had a photo of him to post up, but unfortunately I don’t.

It was another good day for AFD with some really good performances across the board, and more importantly a very high showing of runners.

The U15 Boys had a great race, Jack Boswell won by a long way, so far out in front he looked like a completely different class to the rest of the field, importantly though, for the team, Jake Cvetkovic, Robbie made top ten places, sliding AFD in to first place in the team event.

A quick rundown of results for the first three AFD runners a great team result, well done boys.

1st Jack Boswell 14:44.0
5th Jake Cvetkovic 15:31.0
10th Robbie Coupland 15:47.0

Jake and Robbie looking cold and wet after a hard 4.25k race.

Oh, did I mention the mud???

Also looking Muddy…

Aldershot District Inter School XC (Match 3)

By | | ,
Leave a comment

A bit of change today, no year 11’s, no private schools but we did have some additional state schools join the fun, including Connaught and Cove.

First race was the year 7 & 8 girls, shortly followed by the year 7 & 8 boys with the final race of the day being a co-ed race featuring all year 9 & 10 pupils.

Robbie re-enters the main field with a very impressive lead.

With the year 11’s missing Robbie was left to run out on his own and finish first at his home venue, 2nd place was also grabbed by Calthorpe who also came second in the Y7&8 Girls race and 1st and 3rd in the Y7&8 boys race. So a good day for the school.

Robbie finished the 2.56km course in 1st place with a time of 8:50.0.

National Cross Country Relays 2013

By | |
Leave a comment

AFD were out in bulk once again today, with a long old haul up to Mansfield to partake in the English Athletics National Cross Country Relays.

A great turn out across the board, with some excellent results and performances from U13’s right through to the senior men and women.

To be somewhat blinkered the details below only pertain to Robbie’s section, results for the event as a whole can be found at…

http://www.englishcrosscountry.co.uk/category/relays/

AFD U15 Boys had a lot to do again today, facing off against their Road Relay competition in the form of the all conquering Tonbridge team with other heavy competition being promised from Bedford and Leicester, would AFD be able to bump up out of 4th place and grab a medal? You bet they would.

1st Tonbridge
2nd Bedford
3rd AFD
4th Leicester

So at National Level the top 3 is a direct replica of the Southern Road Relay performance, and a very close run in for the National Road Relays, with the only change being the switch of 3rd and 4th place giving AFD U15 Boys a National Level Medal. Well Done Boys.

 Pos Team Team
Time		 Leg 1
Time		 Runner Leg 2
Time		 Runner Leg 3
Time		 Runner
3 AFD A 20:09.40 06:38.75 Jake Cvetkovic  07:01.70 Robbie Coupland 06:28.95 Jack Boswell
28 AFD B 21:28.95 06:56.85 Tom Fitch 07:13.45 Olly Percival 07:18.65 Harry Grace

Pic 1 is of Robbie pushing for the line, Pic 2 is the boys collecting their medals.

Robbie Pushing for the line.

AFD A collecting their well deserved Bronze Medals.