Category Archives: Club Athletics

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.

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…

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.

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.

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.

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.

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