Monthly Archives: December 2014

Saturday saw Robbie don a brand new Hampshire vest having finally outgrown his old one, but a new vest wasn’t to prove a good omen. Conditions in Oxford were good in the air, but very muddy under foot. The course was generally flat and fast in parts with a couple of sharp nasty hills and some very muddy trails thrown in for good measure. All round good XC conditions and Robbie was keen to get started, with thoughts of a top 5 finish in mind. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be, Robbie sat with the group trailing the leaders for a long stretch of the race, but when it came to it he simply didn’t have enough to push past them and make something of the race, finishing in 12th place with a time of 15’41” nearly a minute behind fellow Hampshire and winning athlete Zac Mahamed (14’49”). A performance Robbie was dissapointed with, but you can’t win them all and the only thing to take from this is the need to dig in and build in training, with the 2014 races now finished, we are putting this one behind us and looking forward to 3rd January 2015 when it all starts again.

On a merrier note though, it was a good day for Team Hampshire, coming 3rd overall with 41 points, behind second place Kent also on 41 points and 1st place Herts on 30 points. Congratulations to all runners it was a real slog through that mud, and special congratulations to Zac Mahamed for his 1st place and Lachlan Wellington for his 6th place finish.

Team Hampshire – SEAA XC

After a week of coughing and spluttering there was some concern if we’d even make it to Popham and ultimately the decision to race was not unanimous within the Coupland household, fortunately we don’t run a democracy so Robbie headed to Popham to run the race. Mick recommendation to sit back a bit, take it steady and work through the pack were taken on board and by the 1k point Robbie had shuffled forward from 15th at the first corner to 6th, sitting on the shoulders of Tom Bourne and Lachlan Wellington and forming a trailing group about 20m back from the leading group of Zac Mahamed, Chey Kemp and Matt Rawlings. Distances between individuals and groups varied a lot over the second part of the course, but ultimately the positions didn’t change too much, the only noticeable change to that leading 6 was the addition of Ollie Percival (AFD) sliding in behind Robbie’s 5th place and pushing Tom Bourne down to 7th.

Chasing Group at the 2K point.

Another long trip to the outer reaches of world saw us getting our heads down near Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport. The Crowne Plaza offered a good nights sleep, Pizza Hut provided plenty of pre-sleep carbs, and MacDonalds supplied breakfast, talk about a healthy weekend away.

A manic chase down the long, wide starting straight saw Robbie hit the first corner in approximately 30th place, but a serious amount of hard work and determination soon saw him up on the shoulders of the leading group. Some excellent performances on the day ultimately pushed Robbie just outside the top 10 to finish in 11th place, but with the quality line up that is nothing to be ashamed of.

Stampede at Liverpool

Well done to everyone that ran, top 11 shown below.

Matt Willis (9:44)
Reece Curtis (9:46)
Joshua Cowperthwaite (9:48)
Oliver Barbaresi (9:51)
Luke Davies (9:52)
Joe Body (9:54)
Callum Abberley (9:55)
Elliot Dee (9:55)
Joseph Pollard (9:56)
David Mullarkey (9:56)
Robbie Coupland (9:57)