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.
- Race 1 – Farley Mount – 6th
- 13/10/2012
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.
- Race 2 – Goodwood – 4th
- 10/11/2012
| 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)
- Race 3 – Popham Airfield, Basingstoke – 5th
- 01/12/2012
| 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.
- Race 4 – King’s park, Bournemouth – N/R
- 12/01/2013
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).
- Race 5 – Hudson’s Field, Salisbury – 3rd
- 09/02/2012
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.
Overall Standings.
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.