Author Archives: Steve

This weekend saw the final event of the 2014 -15 Hampshire League. A trip down to Bournemouth was unfortunately not on the cards as Robbie is still recovering from his hamstring problem, that said it could still be a good day for both Robbie and the U15’s. Initial worries about availability were alleviated on the day and AFD currently in first place overall fielded a full 3 man team, ensuring that they wouldn’t be disqualified. At an individual level, only 4 out of 5 races count, and as Robbie had already completed 4, his 5th place and Bronze Individual Medal were guaranteed. With a team on the turf, AFD were always going to medal in the team event, pretty much guaranteed 2nd place and Silver medals, a good performance in Bournemouth would guarantee AFD 1st place and gold, and that is precisely what they got though by the smallest of margins finishing Bournemouth in 3rd place behind Reading and Camberley meant that the league as a whole finished with both AFD and Reading on 10 points, but with AFD holding an overall positional point tally of 115 to Reading’s 137 and since less is best that meant an overall gold for AFD.

First place on the day was Zak Mahamed, clocking in his 3rd 1st place of the season and ensuring his Individual Gold, Chey Kemp coming in second ensured his Individual Silver. With the AFD team scoring as below.

5. Ollie Percival
6. Sean Pocknee
24. Tom Naisby

Well done boys for making it there and getting the results. A big well done to the other AFD teams as well with AFD winning the following events.

U13 Boys
U15 Boys
U17 Men
Senior Men
Veteran Men
U15 Girls
U20 Women
Senior Women.

Another good season and warm up for the Nationals, come on Parliament Hill 21st February.

One of the biggest events of the year usually held at Parliament Hill in London, but sliding further south in years where Parliament Hill hosts the Nationals. This year, with Parliament Hill hosting those Nationals, the Southerns are held down in Brighton. Robbie has run both locations in the past with his last outing to Bristol being three years ago. This was to be one of the big races of the year for Robbie, with expectations for an individual medal place. Unfortunately it was not to be, a visit on Friday night to Stuart Butler (GB & England Athletics Support Team – Physiotherapist) highlighted that Robbie has suffered a torn hamstring, probably as far back as late November / early December 2014. Continued work and strain to the hamstring has resulted in a condition described as “weak hamstring”, Stuart explained that because the muscle was not being given a chance to recover, the body had started to “shut down” the muscle to prevent use and assist healing. Requirement for now is NO running, hamstring strengthening exercises followed by a gradual rehabilitation plan to get back to gentle running before stepping back in to training. The outcome 4 to 6 weeks minimum without competition, so no Southerns today, no School Southerns next week and for the moment we are not sure if there will be any more races this Cross Country season. Still at least we know the problem now and have a plan to move forward. Good luck to everybody running today, come on you AFD and congratulations to James Puxty (Tonbridge), Zac Mahamed (Southampton) and Lachlan Wellington (Portsmouth) who I am informed finished the U15’s race in that order, well done boys.

Odd weather conditions today, but I guess that should be expected at a Cross Country meet. The 4th race in the Hampshire League series was hosted by Reading AC, who in turn had a strong showing at the event with Chey Kemp leading from the start across the flat and in to the hills section. The lack of current league leader Zak Mahamed saw a steadier start speed to the race, the hills took there toll on a number of boys, most struggling up them, but Robbie with a problematic hamstring which has kept him from training for a week and is still tight and sore when stretched, not liking the down hills. Lachlan Wellington had powered through the hills section in to first place, steaming down the  steep hill back toward the fields saw an unfortunate marshaling or course error, and Lachlan headed off in the wrong direction, by the time he’d corrected he was back in second place with Chey Kemp back in front. The race didn’t finish there though, with numerous changes over the long finishing straight, Robbie trying to stick in but with no length to his stride his pace could simply not improve found himself pushed back to a 6th place finish by Dominic Willmore (Poole Runners), Chey Kemp also found the final part of the race hard going as Tom Bourne steamed passed everyone to finish first, with Lachlan Wellington second and Alex Rodrigues in 3rd.

Timings now in, top 10 below.

Another year of Hampshire Champs at Eastleigh and another year of lots of rain and plenty of mud. In places the footing was treacherous at best, but it was a true Cross Country course, stretching for 4.35km. With about 1200m to go and Zak Mahamed is storming out in front, with Robbie leading the chase closely followed by Lachlan Wellington, a tight turn in deep mud saw Robbie hit the deck, back on his feet fairly quickly but his rhythm thrown to pieces and Lachlan pulling away and Alex Rowe(Guernsey) & William Brown(Jersey) chasing him down and closing the gap quickly. With 800m to go Robbie is back in his flow and pushing hard, Lachlan is now well clear and Robbie is no threat to that second place position, but with his flow back he quickly starts to open the gap between himself and the Channel Island runners battling for fourth behind him.

Results:
1st Zak Mahamed 14:39
2nd Lachlan Wellington 14:57
3rd Robbie Coupland 15:10
4th Alex Rowe 15:18
5th William Brown 15:23

Unfortunately with only 3 runners AFD did not field a full team and as such could not compete for the team medals.

AFD Runners U15b:
18 Billy Smith 16:48
20 Sean Pocknee 17:00

Robbie Chasing Zak through the Mud of Fleming Park, Eastleigh.

Saturday saw Robbie don a brand new Hampshire vest having finally outgrown his old one, but a new vest wasn’t to prove a good omen. Conditions in Oxford were good in the air, but very muddy under foot. The course was generally flat and fast in parts with a couple of sharp nasty hills and some very muddy trails thrown in for good measure. All round good XC conditions and Robbie was keen to get started, with thoughts of a top 5 finish in mind. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be, Robbie sat with the group trailing the leaders for a long stretch of the race, but when it came to it he simply didn’t have enough to push past them and make something of the race, finishing in 12th place with a time of 15’41” nearly a minute behind fellow Hampshire and winning athlete Zac Mahamed (14’49”). A performance Robbie was dissapointed with, but you can’t win them all and the only thing to take from this is the need to dig in and build in training, with the 2014 races now finished, we are putting this one behind us and looking forward to 3rd January 2015 when it all starts again.

On a merrier note though, it was a good day for Team Hampshire, coming 3rd overall with 41 points, behind second place Kent also on 41 points and 1st place Herts on 30 points. Congratulations to all runners it was a real slog through that mud, and special congratulations to Zac Mahamed for his 1st place and Lachlan Wellington for his 6th place finish.

Team Hampshire – SEAA XC

After a week of coughing and spluttering there was some concern if we’d even make it to Popham and ultimately the decision to race was not unanimous within the Coupland household, fortunately we don’t run a democracy so Robbie headed to Popham to run the race. Mick recommendation to sit back a bit, take it steady and work through the pack were taken on board and by the 1k point Robbie had shuffled forward from 15th at the first corner to 6th, sitting on the shoulders of Tom Bourne and Lachlan Wellington and forming a trailing group about 20m back from the leading group of Zac Mahamed, Chey Kemp and Matt Rawlings. Distances between individuals and groups varied a lot over the second part of the course, but ultimately the positions didn’t change too much, the only noticeable change to that leading 6 was the addition of Ollie Percival (AFD) sliding in behind Robbie’s 5th place and pushing Tom Bourne down to 7th.

Chasing Group at the 2K point.

Another long trip to the outer reaches of world saw us getting our heads down near Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport. The Crowne Plaza offered a good nights sleep, Pizza Hut provided plenty of pre-sleep carbs, and MacDonalds supplied breakfast, talk about a healthy weekend away.

A manic chase down the long, wide starting straight saw Robbie hit the first corner in approximately 30th place, but a serious amount of hard work and determination soon saw him up on the shoulders of the leading group. Some excellent performances on the day ultimately pushed Robbie just outside the top 10 to finish in 11th place, but with the quality line up that is nothing to be ashamed of.

Stampede at Liverpool

Well done to everyone that ran, top 11 shown below.

Matt Willis (9:44)
Reece Curtis (9:46)
Joshua Cowperthwaite (9:48)
Oliver Barbaresi (9:51)
Luke Davies (9:52)
Joe Body (9:54)
Callum Abberley (9:55)
Elliot Dee (9:55)
Joseph Pollard (9:56)
David Mullarkey (9:56)
Robbie Coupland (9:57)