Young guns and old hands deliver at Claybury - Met League cross country Race 1

Newly promoted to Met League Division One, our Women’s cross country team started the season with all six scoring athletes posting sub-40 minute times over the hilly 3-lap 8km course.

Charlotte Harris lead the way with a brilliant 35:22 finish with her fellow 17 year old Under20 team mates Emma McCluskey, Florence Humphrey plus club stalwarts Kath March, Karen Murphy and Jo Kent making up the scoring, with Sarah Moffatt also in top 100 finishers.

It was great to see a bigger team of 16 women taking part this year which bodes well for a successful season in the top division.

Youth also lead the way in the Men’s race with 21 year old Ed Fraser crossing the line with a fantastic time of 29:53, coming 78th in a field of 390.

Behind him were three more of our 17 year olds, Joe Ward, Noah Clarke and Callum Sydenham, running the senior course for the first time, all coming home in under 33 minutes and in the top 200 finishers. Just behind them was 23 year old Rufus Kent, by Paul Bassa posting the 4th best time in the V60 category, then Philip Collingtham, Jamie March, Paul Carter and Will Cooper picking up points on his Met League debut.

As with the women, we had a bigger turnout than last year from our small but competitive club - essential in this Division where the team’s first ten athletes contribute to the scoring.

Barnet & District athletes competed in every age category - our youngest runner was 9 and our oldest runners were… lets say “over 59” year olds! The cheering and cowbell-ringing support for all our competitors and the autumn sunshine made for a great day. The detailed results can be seen on the League’s website https://metleague.run/results/

The next race is on November 11th at Wormwood Scrubs. The full fixture list is here: https://metleague.run/Fixtures