Aldershot District Schools AA – District Selection Race

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Today ADSAA held their annual selection race, the top 16 boys / girls in each section will be nominated to represent Aldershot in the Hampshire County Selection race.

The age categories are Junior (Years 8 & 9) and Intermediate (Years 10 & 11) meaning that Robbie is running as the upper age group in the Junior section. Although the event was a schools event, not a club event, there were obviously a lot of familiar AFD faces in the line ups, with AFD runners coming 1st and 2nd in the Junior girls, 1st and 2nd in the Junior boys, 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th in the Intermediate boys and I think 1st and 2nd in the Intermediate girls.

Robbie secured selection in to the District team finishing the race in first place, followed in to the finishing line by AFD team mate Billy Smith, with James Hier from AFD grabbing the last selection place in 16th position. Robbie’s Calthorpe School team mate Kye Buckley finished a very respectable 7th place securing selection in to the District team.

Robbie’s Race
Position: 1st
Time: 11:32
Distance: 3k

Salesian College showing an abundance of runners.

Robbie pulling away at the front.

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Hampshire League (2 of 5) – Goodwood

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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…

Aldershot District Inter School XC (Match 3)

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A bit of change today, no year 11’s, no private schools but we did have some additional state schools join the fun, including Connaught and Cove.

First race was the year 7 & 8 girls, shortly followed by the year 7 & 8 boys with the final race of the day being a co-ed race featuring all year 9 & 10 pupils.

Robbie re-enters the main field with a very impressive lead.

With the year 11’s missing Robbie was left to run out on his own and finish first at his home venue, 2nd place was also grabbed by Calthorpe who also came second in the Y7&8 Girls race and 1st and 3rd in the Y7&8 boys race. So a good day for the school.

Robbie finished the 2.56km course in 1st place with a time of 8:50.0.

National Cross Country Relays 2013

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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.

 Pos Team Team
Time		 Leg 1
Time		 Runner Leg 2
Time		 Runner Leg 3
Time		 Runner
3 AFD A 20:09.40 06:38.75 Jake Cvetkovic  07:01.70 Robbie Coupland 06:28.95 Jack Boswell
28 AFD B 21:28.95 06:56.85 Tom Fitch 07:13.45 Olly Percival 07:18.65 Harry Grace

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.

UK Cross Challenge – Bristol

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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.

Pos. Name Team Time 2012
Time
1 Ben Dijkstra Leicester 12:56.0 13:38.0
2 Will Crisp Swindon 13:40.0 13:48.0 
3 Will Stockley Bath 13:44.0 13:54.0
4 Dylan Leisinger Hastings 13:52.0 14:12.0 
5 Chey Kemp Reading 14:02.0 14:21.0 
6 Archie Stoneman Exeter 14:04.0 14:29.0 
7 Jaymee Dormoney Salisbury 14:09.0  14:36.0 
8 Matt Rawlings Reading 14:12.0  14:38.0 
9 Piers Copeland Wimborne 14:15.0  14:47.0 
10 John Howorth Bath 14:21.0  14:56.0 
11 Robert Howorth Bath 14:22.0  15:08.0 
12 Robbie Coupland AFD 14:28.0 15:12.0 

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.

Aldershot District Inter School XC (Match 2)

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All the same rules, and competition layout’s as match 1, with Years 7 & 8 racing against each other, years 9 & 10 racing against each other and year 11 racing against themselves, only incorporated in to the year 9 & 10 race. So two races for 3 age groups over 2 sexes = 4 races 🙂

Boys Years 9,10 & 11.

Robbie approaching the last corner on a quick but hilly course.

Sorry all, I don’t have a full list of results, apparently they are subject to high security restrictions and are only available to school PE departments, if I manage to hack the SPE Database and pull down the full set of results I’ll post them up here, I promise. Do me a favour and keep an eye out for the Teachers in Black suits and Sunglasses.

Course was quite short, but contained a nasty hill which had to be negotiated twice. Distance approx. 2.3k.

Much like Race 1. Robbie finished 2nd overall, 1st in the year 8/9 section. AFD team mates Charlie Mills (1st Overall, 1st Year 11) and Reece Webber (6th Overall) were once again present.

Hampshire League (Match 1)

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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

Position Name Time
1 Jack Boswell 11:56
4 Jake Cvetkovic 12:35
10 Robbie Coupland 12:54
14 Oliver Percival 13:13

 

Aldershot District Inter School XC (Match 1)

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The first Inter School XC of the season, at least for Robbie, was held at Robert Mays school in Hook. A quick field based course, incorporating 3 laps of a 1k circuit.

This season a number of these races will be combined age group races, with age group positions being sorted out post race, and mixed positions being issued on the day.

Today’s race saw Years 9, 10 and 11 combine together in one race, with the results feeding in to separate performances for the year 9 and 10 age group and the year 11 age group.

Robbie finished 2nd overall with an approx. time of 10:20.0 (TBC neither Robbie nor I managed to start our watches on time). 2nd place overall provided Robbie with 1st place in the year 9/10 category with AFD team mate Charlie Mills taking the 1st place slot (overall and for year 11). In addition to Charlie and Robbie AFD team mate Reece Webber was also top 10 placed, finishing in 7th place overall (year 9/10 placing TBC).

North Hants Inter School XC (Match 1)

National Road Relays 2013

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It doesn’t seem long since the last National Road Relays, oh it isn’t due to weather they were run some 6 months ago, not a year ago. But irrelevant to timings and weather predicaments from last season, this years went ahead on time and as smoothly as can be expected. The rain may not have caused a cancellation this year, but it certainly showed it’s face a wet and muddy site had some parental taxi services concerned that they may not be able to leave the car park by the end of the day.

On a personal note…

Robbie had an excellent run, picking up the rains from Jake Cvetkovic, who completed the first leg in 9th place with an excellent time of 12:57, he pushed forward to complete the second leg in 13:14 seconds pulling AFD up in to 5th position, the last leg was run in the awesome time of 12:21 by Jack Boswell, this being the second fastest individual leg by an U15 boy on the day. Despite the excellent performances of all three runners it was not quite enough to get in to the medal standings, the team managing 4th place. Still 4th place in the National Road Relays is an excellent result in anyone’s book, and at an individual level the boys all had outstanding performances.

The last hill before the finishing straight, with Robbie working hard and chasing down the 4th place runner.

A complete breakdown of AFD performances.

A good showing, in numbers, for AFD with all groups entering multiple teams.

U13 Girls entered  3 complete teams and placed 12th, 32nd & 42nd. The fastest individual leg result by an AFD runner was set by Daisy Corbett in 15:02. (15th Individual)

U13 Boys entered 3 complete teams and placed 12th, 19th and 23rd. The fastest individual leg result by an AFD runner was set by Marcus Shantry in 14:00. (5th Individual)

U15 Girls entered 3 complete teams and placed 5th, 19th and 32nd. The fastest individual leg result by an AFD runner was set by Niamh Brown in 13:57. (6th Individual)

U15 Boys entered 2 complete teams and 1 incomplete team, they placed 4th, 30th. The fastest individual leg result by an AFD runner was set by Jack Boswell in 12:21. (2nd Individual)

U17 Women entered 3 complete teams and placed 4th, 19th and 28th. The fastest individual leg result by an AFD runner was set by Eloise Milbourn in 14:08. (13th Individual)

U17 Men entered 1 complete team which placed 2nd (our only team medal of the event) and an incomplete team. The fastest individual leg result by an AFD runner was set by Jack Crabtree in 11:38. (2nd Individual)

 

Southern Road Relays – 2013

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Another excellent day for the Southern Road Relays, it’s been 5 years for Robbie, and still no sign of rain. I’m sure we will make up for that during the Cross Country season though.

The teams stayed pretty much as given on my previous post, which has now been updated with the runners times. For those who can’t be bothered, or haven’t got time to look back a post, Robbie ran an excellent time finishing the 3k course in 10:10, setting a good pace, time and position for the AFD A team who finished in 3rd place overall thanks to an outstanding performance from Anchor man Jack Boswell. Team time was 39:57, with Tonbridge winning in 38:15, followed by Bedford in 39:05.

A busy start to the race, shows the difference in size and stature of the boys and a deep concentration on Robbie’s face as they storm away from the line.

 

And they’re off..

The next view of Robbie is as he comes down the hill on to the corner by the AFD tent, fondly dubbed the flying corner as all previous years we have managed to photograph Robbie storming round the corner with both feet in mid air, and this year we did it again.

Float Like a Butterfly, run like a Cheater.

And with the race finished, the boys step up to collect their Bronze medals. Well done AFD U15 Boys, a great performance from everyone in the club, with some excellent times all round. Medals were short on the day, but determination, desire and effort were in full force.

U15 Boys – Southern Road Relay Bronze Medal Winners 2013