Not much here yet, but keep your eyes open as I intend to fill it up fairly swiftly.
A taster picture of the AFD U13 Boys team, at the National XC event in Sunderland. Very snowy, very muddy and pretty darn cold.
National XC 2012
The Hampshire league may be a bit misnamed, it is organised by Hampshire Athletics Association, but athletes from Surrey, Berkshire, Dorset, IOW and the Channel Islands compete alongside their Hampshire counter parts.
This leads to a very competitive and very tough competition. The Hampshire Athletes and their performances are monitored by HAA during the season, and their performances are utilised to pick the Hampshire County Representative team.
The Hampshire League comprises of 5 individual races, the results of which are fed in to an overall individual results table and an overall team results table.
A new season in the Hampshire League sees many of last years U13 boys move up oin to the U15 age category, with the reduced numbers and the loss of some exceptional talent the U13’s are going to have to work really hard to come anywhere close to last years success.
| Place | Time | Runner | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11’10” | Matt Rawlings | Reading |
| 2 | 11’12” | James Fleming | Camberley |
| 3 | 11’21” | Tom Bourne | Wimborne |
Familiar opposition in the form of Archie Ives and Daniel Cooke both finishing ahead of Robbie’s 6th place. AFD manage to get 3 runners in the top 14 (Billy Smith 11th, Lawrence Gilfrin 14th), with newcomer Tom Naisby finishing in a very respectable 21st.
| Place | Time | Runner | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10’40” | Matt Rawlings | Reading |
| 2 | 10’42” | Alex Rowe | Guernsey |
| 3 | 11’05” | Tom Bourne | Wimborne |
Robbie just outside the top 3, finishing in 4th with a time of 11’09” fractions of a second in front of Alfie Ives also with a time of 11’09”.
Other high finishing AFD runners; Sean Pocknee (10th), Lawrence Gilfrin (16th), Tom Naisby (23rd)
| Place | Time | Runner | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10’38” | Matt Rawlings | Reading |
| 2 | 10’39” | Tom Bourne | Wimborne |
| 3 | 10’41” | Archie Ives | Winchester |
James Fleming from Camberley returns, finishing in 4th place just ahead of Robbie in 5th (10’54”). Lawrence Gilfrin comes in as the second AFD runner in 10th and Tom Naisby as the third in 18th with a 36th place contribution from James Hier.
And in to 2013… Robbie missed this race as he was competing in the McCain UK XC Challenge in Antrim, Northern Ireland.
| Place | Time | Runner | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11’59” | Matt Rawlings | Wimborne |
| 2 | 12’28” | Archie Ives | Winchester |
| 3 | 12’31” | Daniel Cooke | Camberley |
Good to see Daniel Cooke back on form, James Fleming finished 6th, first AFD runner in was Billy Smith in 10th, with AFD contributions from Tom Naisby (16th), Lawrence Gilfrin (18th), Sean Pocknee (20th).
Very wet and miserable conditions, slippery underfoot. Robbie pushing up to the back field.
Back in and running, can’t afford to miss another race, need at least 4 results to qualify for the overall medal selections. That said, Robbie will need an excellent performance in this final race to be in with a chance.
| Place | Time | Runner | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10’56” | Matt Rawlings | Reading |
| 2 | 11’12” | Archie Ives | Winchester |
| 3 | 11’15” | Robbie Coupland | AFD |
First medal finish in the Hampshire League for Robbie, pulling it out of the bag when it was most needed.
AFD Runners; Tom Naisby (19th), Sean Pocknee (22nd) with AFD just scraping together the minimum team of 3 runners.
Individual
The overall individual standings are calculated by taking each runners best 4 results and adding them together, the lowest score wins.
| Place | Points | Runner | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | Matt Rawlings | Reading |
| 2 | 11 | Archie Ives | Winchester |
| 3 | 13 | Tom Bourne | Wimborne |
On the medal front, 1 gold medal is issued, 1 silver medal is issued and 4 bronze medals are issued. So joining Tom Bourne for Bronze medals were James Fleming, Robbie Coupland and Alex Forster.
Individual Overall Medal Winners – Hampshire League 2012/13
Team The Team event is based on the Team position for each race, added together to create a score. There are no dropped results in the team section, so all team positions for all races count. The lowest score wins.
| Place | Points | Team | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | Reading | 2,3,1,2,2 = 10 |
| 2 | 14 | AFD | 3,2,2,3,4 = 14 |
| 3 | 20 | Southampton | 4,4,5,4,3 = 10 |
Well not gold, but not bad. The AFD U13 team has dwindled in numbers and that will only ever make things more difficult.
AND FINALLY !!!
Robbie once again selected for the Hampshire County Cross Country team this year.
The Hampshire Championships are always a hard fought battle, now running as the upper age group in U13’s Robbie has something to prove.
Fleming park, Eastleigh – Distance 3450m
Individual Results
| Place | Time | Runner | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12’10” | Archie Ives | Winchester |
| 2 | 12’21” | Robbie Coupland | AFD |
| 3 | 12’22” | Alex Rowe | Guernsey |
Billy Smith from AFD running as lower age group finished in 7th place with an excellent time of 12’24”.
Individual Medallists Hampshire Country Cross Country Championships 2013
Team Results
| Place | Points | Club | Runners |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 36 | Guernsey | Alex Rowe Hugo Bisson Elliott Robert Joseph Yeaman |
| 2 | 50 | Jersey | Jack Leerson Jack Lutz William Brown Issac Du Val |
| 3 | 61 | AFD | Robbie Coupland Billy Smith Sean Pocknee Zachary Ayers |
Team AFD – u13 Boys Hampshire County Cross Country Championships 2013
The Hampshire league may be a bit misnamed, it is organised by Hampshire Athletics Association, but athletes from Surrey, Berkshire, Dorset, IOW and the Channel Islands compete alongside their Hampshire counter parts.
This leads to a very competitive and very tough competition. The Hampshire Athletes and their performances are monitored by HAA during the season, and their performances are utilised to pick the Hampshire County Representative team.
This will be a tough League for Robbie, not only is it very competitive but he will be running in the bottom age group, competing in the U13’s at 11 years old.
The Hampshire League comprises of 5 individual races, the results of which are fed in to an overall individual results table and an overall team results table.
This first Hampshire League race introduces some names that become very familiar over the next few years. Daniel Cooke, now running for Camberley, Piers Copeland running for Wimborne and Matt Rawlings running for Reading are just a few.
| Place | Time | Runner | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11’19” | Piers Copeland | Wimborne |
| 2 | 11’24” | Isaac Farnworth | Reading |
| 3 | 11’25” | Tom Verney | City of Portsmouth |
With James Fleming in 4th, a great first race at u13’s for him, Daniel Cooke in 6th, Harry Grace (AFD) in 7th. Robbie finishing in 9th, 3 seconds in front of 10th place Matt Rawlings.
| Place | Time | Runner | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11’04” | Piers Copeland | Wimborne |
| 2 | 11’12” | James Fleming | Camberley |
| 3 | 11’16” | Matt Rawlings | Reading |
Sean Pocknee finished for AFD in 5th place, Robbie finished in 12th and Harry Grace finished for AFD in 13th. Just a few of the AFD athletes in attendance.
Hampshire League 2011/12 Race 3
The third race in the series saw a new face for AFD, one that will become very familiar and will frequently be associated with winning.
| Place | Time | Runner | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9’56” | Jack Boswell | AFD |
| 2 | 10’02” | Piers Copeland | Wimborne |
| 3 | 10’15” | Issac Farnworth | Reading |
Sean Pocknee was 2nd in for AFD in 4th place and Robbie was 3rd right down in 16th. Beat on the day by a number of familiar names.
Well 2011 didn’t give much to Robbie’s results or performances. The league was always expected to be hard, but many of Robbie’s contemporaries stepped up to the task with greater success than he did himself, this is the first event of 2012, let’s hope we can start to see an improvement.
| Place | Time | Runner | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8’02” | Piers Copeland | Wimborne |
| 2 | 8’10” | Sean Pocknee | AFD |
| 3 | 8’08” | Luke Powell | Southampton |
Robbie completed the race as the second AFD runner and with his best performance to date in the Hampshire League, finishing 4th in 8’32”, 1 second ahead of Matt Rawlings. Familiar rivals James Fleming and Daniel Cooke of Camberley finished 10th and 12 respectively and future Hampshire team mate Archie Ives finished in 15th place.
The final race of the series, with AFD getting some exceptional results in other age groups the team events are looking good across the board.
| Place | Time | Runner | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10’48” | Jack Boswell | AFD |
| 2 | 11’10” | Piers Copeland | Wimborne |
| 3 | 11’14” | Sean Pocknee | AFD |
3rd in for AFD finishing in 9th place with a time of 11’24”, with Luke Powell beating him by 1 second in a tight finish that saw only 5 seconds between Robbie and 4th place.
Some names and positions to mention.
Individual
The overall individual standings are calculated by taking each runners best 4 results and adding them together, the lowest score wins.
| Place | Points | Runner | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Piers Copeland | Wimborne |
| 2 | 14 | Sean Pocknee | AFD |
| 3 | 21 | Tom Verney | City of Portsmouthey |
On the medal front, 1 gold medal is issued, 1 silver medal is issued and 4 bronze medals are issued. So joining Tom Verney for Bronze medals were James Fleming, Matt Rawlings and Tom Bourne. Robbie missed out on an Individual medal placing 6th overall.
Team The Team event is based on the Team position for each race, added together to create a score. There are no dropped results in the team section, so all team positions for all races count. The lowest score wins.
The Hampshire League Winning Team.
The athletes that represented AFD throughout the League in the U13’s were; Billy Smith, Chris Snook, Harry Grace, Zac Ayers, Jack Boswell, James Hier, James Pocknee, Lawrence Gilfrin, Robbie Coupland, Reece Webber, Sam McCready, Sean Pocknee, Tom Galloway, Tom Potter and Will Passmore. All of whom helped to contribute to the overall success of the club in this event. A total of 129 different athletes competed in the U13 boys section.
| Place | Points | Team | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | AFD | 1,1,1,1,1 = 5 |
| 2 | 18 | Winchester | 4,3,5,3,3 = 18 |
| 3 | 19 | Reading | 2,7,2,2,6 = 19 |
Quite astounding to see AFD not only winning the U13 Boys overall event, but in fact winning the team event in every single race.
AND FINALLY !!!
Robbie’s position of 9th, was sufficient to get him selected for the Hampshire County Cross Country Team. Awesome job.
The Hampshire Championships are always a hard fought battle, 2012 shows a large U13 AFD boys team. So we’d hope to see an excellent team performance, much like the 2012 Hampshire League.
Distance 2700m
Individual Results
| Place | Time | Runner | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9’03” | Jack Boswell | AFD |
| 2 | 9’16” | Sean Pocknee | AFD |
| 3 | 9’20” | Jack Peggie | Jersey |
Alex Rowe from Guernsey finished in 4th and Robbie finished in 5th with a time of 9’28”.
Team Results
| Place | Points | Club | Runners |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25 | AFD | Jack Boswell Sean Pocknee Robbie Coupland Michael Try |
| 2 | 38 | Jersey | Jack Peggie Samuel Maher William Brown Jack Leerson |
| 3 | 60 | Southampton | Sam Costley Luke Powell Owen Lawrence Blake Miller |
And finally, the last U13 Southern Road Relay for Robbie see’s him take the last leg for the “A” team.
The team finishes 9th overall.
Robbie ran an excellent leg and finished in 10′ 47″.
Here we are once more, Rushmoor Arena September 24th 2011.
Robbie back in the U13’s team for the 3rd time round, promoted from the “C” team up to the “A” team and running U13’s as an U13 for the first time.
Robbie completing his leg in 11’27” and the team finishing 4th overall, the best position from an U13 Boys team since Robbie joined the club.
Well here we are, once again at Lord Wandsworth college for another Millennium Cup. This year Robbie is running as upper age group, U11’s and is out to retain the title from last years victory.
A slight change in scene though this year, with both Steph and Mick busy an alternative English Athlete is drafted in to assist in the presentations, sorry but I can’t recall her name, though I do know she is the daughter of the organiser, so perhaps I’ll be able to dig it out and update at a later time.
The race goes much as expected with Robbie running the entire race from the front, Velmead looking strong as a team and a school with a good group of runners being brought to the mix this year, particularly in the U11’s.
Velmead Results
Individual Medals (Velmead)
Robbie only competed in two seasons of the Border League, moving his racing emphasis to the Hampshire League events, which feeds the Hampshire County selection process, and keeping some Sunday’s free for Football.
Robbie setting the pace in the 4th Border League race.
The Border League comprises of 4 individual races, the results of which are fed in to an overall individual results table and an overall team results table. It is organised and run every year by Camberley Athletic Club.
Robbie’s first meeting with Sean Pocknee, a talented new addition to AFD’s line up.
| Place | Time | Runner | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9’02” | James Fleming | Camberley |
| 2 | 9’04” | Robbie Coupland | AFD |
| 3 | 9’22” | Max O’Neill | Windsor |
Sean Pocknee finished in 4th Place.
Location and event organisation for the Farnham Park race was by AFD, the steep upward sloping start seem to suit the boys really well, all those Thursday night hill training sessions coming in to practice. This is the first time we can remember seeing Daniel Cooke, another one of Robbie’s long term running opponents. In this race he was running for Bracknell, but he later moved to Camberley.
| Place | Time | Runner | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10’01” | Robbie Coupland | AFD |
| 2 | 10’19” | Sean Pocknee | AFD |
| 3 | 10’27” | James Fleming | Camberley |
Daniel Cooke finishes in 4th place. Robbie’s Fleet Spurs team mate Matt Farmiloe finishes in 12’15” placing him 33rd in a very competitive race.
| Place | Time | Runner | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10’24” | Robbie Coupland | AFD |
| 2 | 10’38” | Sean Pocknee | AFD |
| 3 | 10’40” | James Fleming | Camberley |
After leading the race comfortably for a long time, Robbie relaxed out in the front, leading the pack by almost 400m at one point. His relaxation ultimately his undoing as Sean sprinted past him, quite literally grabbing the lead as they crossed the line.
| Place | Time | Runner | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10’30” | Sean Pocknee | AFD |
| 2 | 10’30” | Robbie Coupland | AFD |
| 3 | 10’51” | James Fleming | Camberley |
The overall individual standings are calculated by taking each runners best 3 results and adding them together, the lowest score wins.
| Place | Points | Runner | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | Robbie Coupland | AFD |
| 2 | 5 | Sean Pocknee | AFD |
| 3 | 7 | James Fleming | Camberley |
Team The Team event is based on the Team position for each race, added together to create a score. There are no dropped results in the team section, so all team positions for all races count. The lowest score wins.
| Place | Points | Team | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | Camberley | 1,2,2,3 = 8 |
| 2 | 13 | Bracknell | 3,7,1,2 = 9 |
| 3 | 13 | Basingstoke | 4,1,4,4 = 14 |
| 4 | 16 | AFD | 8,4,3,1 = 16 |
As you can see the team performance improved over the duration of the League, the team placing per race is based on the finishing positions of the first 4 finishing athletes for that team, so in the final race AFD won with 1,2,8 (Chris Snook),13 (Jacob Ayers) giving a score of 24 points, Bracknell came second with 32 points. Over the event AFD contributions at U11 also came from Zac Ayers and Lawrence Gilfrin.
Back to Rushmoor arena to step in to team mode once again, Robbie in his second year representing AFD in the U13’s Southern Road Relays. Once again running in the “C” team but performing really well Finishing his leg in 11’40”. The C team finished 23rd.
