Hampshire League 2011/12

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.

This will be a tough League for Robbie, not only is it very competitive but he will be running in the bottom age group, competing in the U13’s at 11 years old.

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 – 7th
    • 08/10/2011

This first Hampshire League race introduces some names that become very familiar over the next few years. Daniel Cooke, now running for Camberley, Piers Copeland running for Wimborne and Matt Rawlings running for Reading are just a few.

 Place Time Runner Club
 1 11’19” Piers Copeland Wimborne
 2 11’24” Isaac Farnworth Reading
 3 11’25” Tom Verney City of Portsmouth

With James Fleming in 4th, a great first race at u13’s for him, Daniel Cooke in 6th, Harry Grace (AFD) in 7th. Robbie finishing in 9th, 3 seconds in front of 10th place Matt Rawlings.

  • Race 2 – Goodwood – 12th
    • 12/11/2011
 Place Time Runner Club
 1 11’04” Piers Copeland Wimborne
 2 11’12” James Fleming Camberley
 3 11’16” Matt Rawlings Reading

Sean Pocknee finished for AFD in 5th place, Robbie finished in 12th and Harry Grace finished for AFD in 13th. Just a few of the AFD athletes in attendance.

  • Race 3 – Popham Airfield, Basingstoke – 16th
    • 03/12/2011

Hampshire League 2011/12 Race 3

The third race in the series saw a new face for AFD, one that will become very familiar and will frequently be associated with winning.

Place Time Runner Club
1 9’56” Jack Boswell AFD
2 10’02” Piers Copeland Wimborne
3 10’15” Issac Farnworth Reading

Sean Pocknee was 2nd in for AFD in 4th place and Robbie was 3rd right down in 16th. Beat on the day by a number of familiar names.

  • Alex Rowe (Guernsey) – 6th
  • Daniel Cooke (Camberley) – 9th
  • Matt Rawlings (Reading) – 11th
  • James Fleming (Camberley) – 13th
  • Archie Ives (Winchester) – 15th

 

  • Race 4 – King’s park, Bournemouth – 4th
    • 14/01/2012

Well 2011 didn’t give much to Robbie’s results or performances. The league was always expected to be hard, but many of Robbie’s contemporaries stepped up to the task with greater success than he did himself, this is the first event of 2012, let’s hope we can start to see an improvement.

Place Time Runner Club
1 8’02” Piers Copeland Wimborne
2 8’10” Sean Pocknee AFD
3 8’08” Luke Powell Southampton

Robbie completed the race as the second AFD runner and with his best performance to date in the Hampshire League, finishing 4th in 8’32”, 1 second ahead of Matt Rawlings. Familiar rivals James Fleming and Daniel Cooke of Camberley finished 10th and 12 respectively and future Hampshire team mate Archie Ives  finished in 15th place.

  • Race 5 – Hudson’s Field, Salisbury – 9th
    • 11/02/2012

The final race of the series, with AFD getting some exceptional results in other age groups the team events are looking good across the board.

Place Time Runner Club
1 10’48” Jack Boswell AFD
2 11’10” Piers Copeland Wimborne
3 11’14” Sean Pocknee AFD

3rd in for AFD finishing in 9th place with a time of 11’24”, with Luke Powell beating him by 1 second in a tight finish that saw only 5 seconds between Robbie and 4th place.

Some names and positions to mention.

  • James Fleming (Camberley) – 10th
  • Matt Rawlings (Reading) – 11th
  • Harry Grace (AFD) 12th
  • Archie Ives (Winchester) 14th
  • Lawrence Gilfrin (AFD) 16th

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 5 Piers Copeland Wimborne
2 14 Sean Pocknee AFD
3 21 Tom Verney City of Portsmouthey

On the medal front, 1 gold medal is issued, 1 silver medal is issued and 4 bronze medals are issued. So joining Tom Verney for Bronze medals were James Fleming, Matt Rawlings and Tom Bourne. Robbie missed out on an Individual medal placing 6th overall.

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.

The Hampshire League Winning Team.

The athletes that represented AFD throughout the League in the U13’s were; Billy Smith, Chris Snook, Harry Grace, Zac Ayers, Jack Boswell, James Hier, James Pocknee, Lawrence Gilfrin, Robbie Coupland, Reece Webber, Sam McCready, Sean Pocknee, Tom Galloway, Tom Potter and Will Passmore. All of whom helped to contribute to the overall success of the club in this event. A total of 129 different athletes competed in the U13 boys section.

Place Points Team  Results
1 5 AFD  1,1,1,1,1 = 5
2 18 Winchester  4,3,5,3,3 = 18
3 19 Reading  2,7,2,2,6 = 19

Quite astounding to see AFD not only winning the U13 Boys overall event, but in fact winning the team event in every single race.

AND FINALLY !!!

Robbie’s position of 9th, was sufficient to get him selected for the Hampshire County Cross Country Team. Awesome job.

Hampshire Cross Country Championships 2012

The Hampshire Championships are always a hard fought battle, 2012 shows a large U13 AFD boys team. So we’d hope to see an excellent team performance, much like the 2012 Hampshire League.

Distance 2700m

Individual Results

Place Time Runner Club
1 9’03” Jack Boswell AFD
2 9’16” Sean Pocknee AFD
3 9’20” Jack Peggie Jersey

Alex Rowe from Guernsey finished in 4th and Robbie finished in 5th with a time of 9’28”.

Team Results

Place Points Club Runners
1 25 AFD Jack Boswell
Sean Pocknee
Robbie Coupland
Michael Try
2 38 Jersey Jack Peggie
Samuel Maher
William Brown
Jack Leerson
3 60 Southampton Sam Costley
Luke Powell
Owen Lawrence
Blake Miller

Southern Road Relays 2011

Here we are once more, Rushmoor Arena September 24th 2011.

Robbie back in the U13’s team for the 3rd time round, promoted from the “C” team up to the “A” team and running U13’s as an U13 for the first time.

Robbie completing his leg in 11’27” and the team finishing 4th overall, the best position from an U13 Boys team since Robbie joined the club.

  • 2009 A team – 21st
  • 2010 A team – 5th
  • 2011 A team – 4th

Cheered on past AFD Corner

Border League 2010/11

Robbie only competed in two seasons of the Border League, moving his racing emphasis to the Hampshire League events, which feeds the Hampshire County selection process, and keeping some Sunday’s free for Football.

Robbie setting the pace in the 4th Border League race.

The Border League comprises of 4 individual races, the results of which are fed in to an overall individual results table and an overall team results table. It is organised and run every year by Camberley Athletic Club.

  • Race 1 – Lord Wandsworth College – 2nd
    • 07/11/2010

Robbie’s first meeting with Sean Pocknee, a talented new addition to AFD’s line up.

 Place Time Runner Club
 1 9’02” James Fleming Camberley
 2 9’04” Robbie Coupland AFD
 3 9’22” Max O’Neill Windsor

Sean Pocknee finished in 4th Place.

  • Race 2 – Farnham Park – 1st
    • 12/12/2010

Location and event organisation for the Farnham Park race was by AFD, the steep upward sloping start seem to suit the boys really well, all those Thursday night hill training sessions coming in to practice. This is the first time we can remember seeing Daniel Cooke, another one of Robbie’s long term running opponents. In this race he was running for Bracknell, but he later moved to Camberley.

 Place Time Runner Club
 1 10’01” Robbie Coupland AFD
 2 10’19” Sean Pocknee AFD
 3 10’27” James Fleming Camberley

Daniel Cooke finishes in 4th place. Robbie’s Fleet Spurs team mate Matt Farmiloe finishes in 12’15” placing him 33rd in  a very competitive race.

  • Race 3 – Guildford – 1st
    • 06/02/2011
Place Time Runner Club
1 10’24” Robbie Coupland AFD
2 10’38” Sean Pocknee AFD
3 10’40” James Fleming Camberley
  • Race 4 – Lightwater – 2nd
    • 27/02/2011

After leading the race comfortably for a long time, Robbie relaxed out in the front, leading the pack by almost 400m at one point. His relaxation ultimately his undoing as Sean sprinted past him, quite literally grabbing the lead as they crossed the line.

Place Time Runner Club
1 10’30” Sean Pocknee AFD
2 10’30” Robbie Coupland AFD
3 10’51” James Fleming Camberley

Overall Standings.

Individual

The overall individual standings are calculated by taking each runners best 3 results and adding them together, the lowest score wins.

Place Points Runner Club
1 4 Robbie Coupland AFD
2 5 Sean Pocknee AFD
3 7 James Fleming Camberley

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 8 Camberley  1,2,2,3 = 8
2 13 Bracknell  3,7,1,2 = 9
3 13 Basingstoke  4,1,4,4 = 14
4  16  AFD  8,4,3,1 = 16

As you can see the team performance improved over the duration of the League, the team placing per race is based on the finishing positions of the first 4 finishing athletes for that team, so in the final race AFD won with 1,2,8 (Chris Snook),13 (Jacob Ayers) giving a score of 24 points, Bracknell came second with 32 points. Over the event AFD contributions at U11 also came from Zac Ayers and Lawrence Gilfrin.

Southern Road Relays 2009

It’s Robbie’s first outing in an AFD vest, and though he is still only 9yo he steps up and runs in the U13’s race.

Robbie is Happy to represent AFD

Robbie is Happy to represent AFD

His pace does him well, and he catches a number of runners on his circuit round the course, some much bigger than he is…

Size doesn't always matter.

Size doesn’t always matter.

Running for AFD in their U13 C team, and completing his leg in 12’54”. The C team finish the team event in 33rd place.

Border League 2009/10

Robbie’s first season of competition for AFD see’s him taking part in the Border League cross country championships in the U11 age group.

The Border League comprises of 4 individual races, the results of which are fed in to an overall individual results table and an overall team results table. It is organised and run every year by Camberley Athletic Club.

  • Race 1 – Lightwater – 2nd

Robbie’s first meeting with James Fleming (Camberley) sees James take first place, but what an excellent first race. James and Robbie have a friendly rivalry that is still going strong in 2013.

 Place Time Runner Club
 1 10.47 James Fleming Camberley
 2 10.52 Robbie Coupland AFD
 3 11.01 Adam Bonnett Crawley Ridge
  • Race 2 – Guildford

This was the first time Robbie came up against team mate Harry Grace, still running together at AFD in 2013 Harry and Robbie are good friends, but this was a very closely fought race. Robbie put everything in to the finish, with Harry nearly taking him in the last 100 meters. So much effort went in to that 100 meters that Robbie had to be carried away from the finish line by his Grandad.

 Place Time Runner Club
 1 11.03 Robbie Coupland AFD
 2 11.04 Harry Grace AFD
 3 11.13 Alex Clayton Bracknell

James Fleming finds himself pushed in to 4th place.

  • Race 3 – Basingstoke
Place Time Runner Club
1 10.14 Will Edwards Basingstoke
2 10.23 James Fleming Camberley
3 10.30 Harry Grace AFD

Robbie finished in 5th place with a time of 10.40.

  • Race 4 – Lightwater
Place Time Runner Club
1 10.28 Robbie Coupland AFD
2 10.36 Matt Comer Bracknell
3 10.40 Will Edwards Bracknell

The final race of the season saw Harry Grace (AFD) pushed in to 4th place, and James Fleming (Camberley) pushed in to 7th.

Overall Standings.

Individual

The overall individual standings are calculated by taking each runners best 3 results and adding them together, the lowest score wins.

Place Points Runner Club
1 4 Robbie Coupland AFD
2 7 James Fleming Camberley
3 9 Harry Grace AFD

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 9 Camberley  3,1,2,2 = 8
2 10 AFD  1,6,1,1 = 9
3 14 Bracknell  2,4,5,3 = 14

Still seems odd to me that as a team AFD could win 3 out of 4 races and still not win the team event, but hey, who am I? 🙂

Robbie Collecting his Individual Winners Medal for Border League 2009/10

Robbie Collecting his Individual Winners Medal for Border League 2009/10