The Hampshire League Cross Country League’s is one of the strongest leagues in the country, the name comes from the fact that it is Hampshire Athletics Association who organise the league, but the league is not restricted to Hampshire athletes, it attracts a large and strong field with teams and individuals coming from Surrey, Berkshire, Hampshire, Dorset and the Channel Islands.
Today saw Robbie in his first U17’s XC race, though the race was only 4.7k, not the expected 6.0k it was still a hard course and an interesting opportunity. Reading, who proved very strong in the road relays this year had a large team entered in the U17’s and are pushing for a team gold in the league this year, trying to topple AFD from the top spot.
The race kicked off fast, then settled down some on the first hill, the top 5 places soon formed and hardly changed for the whole race, a fast finish from the two top Reading runners (Peter Cook and Matt Rawlings) saw those individuals pushing away from AFD runners (Jack Boswell and Robbie Coupland) to secure 2nd and 4th Place. Still AFD had the best of the day, with Jake Cvetkovic in 1st, Jack in 3rd and Robbie in 5th three runners in the top 5 looks good for the team results. It looks very much like this year’s Hampshire League is going to be a close fought battle between reading and AFD. Well done to everyone who ran today, a special mention to Niamh Brown, still eligible to run U17 but finishing the day as the winner of the Senior Women’s event and to Judith Squibbs in her first ever Hampshire League, the AFD vest suits her well.
Provisional U17’s results (Top 20)
1st Jake Cvetkovic AFD 16:26
2nd Peter Cook Reading 16:39
3rd Jack Boswell AFD 16:42
4th Matt Rawlings Reading 16:55
5th Robbie Coupland AFD 16:58
6th Dominic Willmore Poole Runners 17:01
7th James Beeks Basingstoke 17:12
8th Sam Costley Southampton 17:22
9th Toby Roe Portsmouth 17:24
10th Luke Powell Southampton 17:24
11th Joe Steveni Reading 17:24
12th Jamie Domoney Salisbury 17:32
13th Sam Rodda Reading 17:32
14th Sam Metcalf Isle of Wight 17:33
15th Michael Lennon Reading 17:39
16th Piers Copeland Wimborne 17:48
17th Keir Sullivan Winchester 17:58
18th Isaac Farnworth Reading 18:05
19th Alex Rodrigues AFD 18:08
20th Shreyas Kanyady Reading 18:13
U17 Men – AFD off to a Flying Start
U17 Men – Top of the Hill at Farley Mount
