Once again Cofton Park in Birmingham hosts the British Inter-County Championships, with runners from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland adding to the usual crowd. That said, the Scottish contingency was substantially reduced due to an event clash, someone managed to organise the Scottish Schools XC on the same day as the UK Inter-Counties, and on the topic of “event clashes” Sky TV’s presence was once again obvious in it’s non-existence due to their coverage of the World Indoor Athletics, apparently they can only film one athletic event at a time.

Unusually Cofton Park displayed a serious lack of mud, with just one short 5 meter sticky section at the bottom of the new starting straight, confusion rained down in heaps on arriving runners as they discovered that programs did not contain maps, and that the map posted on-line was incorrect, and that the distance of the course was substantially further than advertised and … wait I don’t think there was anything else, but still.

Anyway, down to business. The U15’s, like all the other races got under way from a very compressed start location, meaning that a distinct advantage was given to those runners in the front line, elbows flew, shoulders barged and more than one runner found himself sprawled on the floor, a fast paced almost full on sprint down the hill to “the sinking sand bend” or if you like the only bit of mud on the course, then in to a very long uphill climb, before zig zaging down, and back up that same hill. The start saw a lot of top notch runners further back than expected, but the hill sorted the order to some extent, Robbie hit the mud way back in the pecking order with over 100 runners in front of him, bottom of the first “Zag” and he’d worked his way up to 42nd, bottom of the second “Zag” and back on to the original course and he was in the 20’s.

Ultimately the good footing, steady hills and long flats led to a very fast race, the original course was marked at 4.5k, the additions to the course must have taken the distance well over 5k and the winning time of 16’58” by Zac Mahamed from Hampshire showed the pace.

Some good times were clocked up and the order of finishing was somewhat juggled about compared to the English Nationals two weeks ago, the top 5 runners in Birmingham being Zac Mahamed (Hampshire), Dan Slater (Merseyside), James Puxty (Kent), Toby Osman (Yorkshire) and Oliver Barbaresi (North Wales). George Groom who won the Nationals only managed 8th place in Birmingham and Harry Boyd who came 3rd at Parliament Hill was well outside the top 10 this time round. So there was some elements of great satisfaction and great disappointment on the day, Robbie had a great run managing 22nd place and coming in as the 3rd runner for Hampshire, showing signs that he is definitely on his way back to fitness.

Disappointment for North Wales who managed to have the best team results for the first two runners (Oliver Barbaresi and Matt Willis scoring 12 points between them) but only managed 10th in the overall team placings. North East Counties took first place with 48 points, followed by Yorkshire with 91 and Hampshire with 91, Hampshire getting bronze based on the position of their 4th runner.

Congratulations to the Hampshire team on their Bronze medal, shame we couldn’t have made up one more place and grabbed that silver, but still an outstanding performance from all the boys, with 3 of those 4 scoring runners being from the bottom year, Hampshire are looking good for U15 boys in 2016.

Zac, Robbie and Lachlan collect their Team Bronze Medals

The biggest event of the year for AFD, and the first race back for Robbie. Without the injury and enforced month off we’d have been expecting a top 10 finish this year, as it was Mick advised Robbie to take it easy, slow the start and pick people off with a target of top 50. Robbie ran the race exactly as told, looking strong but not really stepping up on the finishing straight where he got knocked back a couple of places, still he finished 40th, out of 371 finishers and 582 registered runners and was the first AFD runner on the scoreboard so not a bad return all in all.

Congratulations to George Groom (Shaftesbury) who had a stunning race to finish 1st in 15’48”, Zac Mahamed (Southampton) who finished 2nd in 15’59” and was the 1st boy from the lower year over the line and also Harry Boyd (Guildford) who had a great result picking up 3rd place in 16’05”.

AFD U15 Boys
40th Robbie Coupland 17’08”
57th Ollie Percival 17’21”
81st Sean Pocknee 17’41”
190th Billy Smith 18’46”
240th Matt Oakley 19’15”

Putting AFD in 12th position in the team event, somewhat disappointing for the team, but a hard course that even finishing deserves praise.

Well done everyone who competed.

This weekend saw the final event of the 2014 -15 Hampshire League. A trip down to Bournemouth was unfortunately not on the cards as Robbie is still recovering from his hamstring problem, that said it could still be a good day for both Robbie and the U15’s. Initial worries about availability were alleviated on the day and AFD currently in first place overall fielded a full 3 man team, ensuring that they wouldn’t be disqualified. At an individual level, only 4 out of 5 races count, and as Robbie had already completed 4, his 5th place and Bronze Individual Medal were guaranteed. With a team on the turf, AFD were always going to medal in the team event, pretty much guaranteed 2nd place and Silver medals, a good performance in Bournemouth would guarantee AFD 1st place and gold, and that is precisely what they got though by the smallest of margins finishing Bournemouth in 3rd place behind Reading and Camberley meant that the league as a whole finished with both AFD and Reading on 10 points, but with AFD holding an overall positional point tally of 115 to Reading’s 137 and since less is best that meant an overall gold for AFD.

First place on the day was Zak Mahamed, clocking in his 3rd 1st place of the season and ensuring his Individual Gold, Chey Kemp coming in second ensured his Individual Silver. With the AFD team scoring as below.

5. Ollie Percival
6. Sean Pocknee
24. Tom Naisby

Well done boys for making it there and getting the results. A big well done to the other AFD teams as well with AFD winning the following events.

U13 Boys
U15 Boys
U17 Men
Senior Men
Veteran Men
U15 Girls
U20 Women
Senior Women.

Another good season and warm up for the Nationals, come on Parliament Hill 21st February.

One of the biggest events of the year usually held at Parliament Hill in London, but sliding further south in years where Parliament Hill hosts the Nationals. This year, with Parliament Hill hosting those Nationals, the Southerns are held down in Brighton. Robbie has run both locations in the past with his last outing to Bristol being three years ago. This was to be one of the big races of the year for Robbie, with expectations for an individual medal place. Unfortunately it was not to be, a visit on Friday night to Stuart Butler (GB & England Athletics Support Team – Physiotherapist) highlighted that Robbie has suffered a torn hamstring, probably as far back as late November / early December 2014. Continued work and strain to the hamstring has resulted in a condition described as “weak hamstring”, Stuart explained that because the muscle was not being given a chance to recover, the body had started to “shut down” the muscle to prevent use and assist healing. Requirement for now is NO running, hamstring strengthening exercises followed by a gradual rehabilitation plan to get back to gentle running before stepping back in to training. The outcome 4 to 6 weeks minimum without competition, so no Southerns today, no School Southerns next week and for the moment we are not sure if there will be any more races this Cross Country season. Still at least we know the problem now and have a plan to move forward. Good luck to everybody running today, come on you AFD and congratulations to James Puxty (Tonbridge), Zac Mahamed (Southampton) and Lachlan Wellington (Portsmouth) who I am informed finished the U15’s race in that order, well done boys.

Odd weather conditions today, but I guess that should be expected at a Cross Country meet. The 4th race in the Hampshire League series was hosted by Reading AC, who in turn had a strong showing at the event with Chey Kemp leading from the start across the flat and in to the hills section. The lack of current league leader Zak Mahamed saw a steadier start speed to the race, the hills took there toll on a number of boys, most struggling up them, but Robbie with a problematic hamstring which has kept him from training for a week and is still tight and sore when stretched, not liking the down hills. Lachlan Wellington had powered through the hills section in to first place, steaming down the  steep hill back toward the fields saw an unfortunate marshaling or course error, and Lachlan headed off in the wrong direction, by the time he’d corrected he was back in second place with Chey Kemp back in front. The race didn’t finish there though, with numerous changes over the long finishing straight, Robbie trying to stick in but with no length to his stride his pace could simply not improve found himself pushed back to a 6th place finish by Dominic Willmore (Poole Runners), Chey Kemp also found the final part of the race hard going as Tom Bourne steamed passed everyone to finish first, with Lachlan Wellington second and Alex Rodrigues in 3rd.

Timings now in, top 10 below.

Another year of Hampshire Champs at Eastleigh and another year of lots of rain and plenty of mud. In places the footing was treacherous at best, but it was a true Cross Country course, stretching for 4.35km. With about 1200m to go and Zak Mahamed is storming out in front, with Robbie leading the chase closely followed by Lachlan Wellington, a tight turn in deep mud saw Robbie hit the deck, back on his feet fairly quickly but his rhythm thrown to pieces and Lachlan pulling away and Alex Rowe(Guernsey) & William Brown(Jersey) chasing him down and closing the gap quickly. With 800m to go Robbie is back in his flow and pushing hard, Lachlan is now well clear and Robbie is no threat to that second place position, but with his flow back he quickly starts to open the gap between himself and the Channel Island runners battling for fourth behind him.

Results:
1st Zak Mahamed 14:39
2nd Lachlan Wellington 14:57
3rd Robbie Coupland 15:10
4th Alex Rowe 15:18
5th William Brown 15:23

Unfortunately with only 3 runners AFD did not field a full team and as such could not compete for the team medals.

AFD Runners U15b:
18 Billy Smith 16:48
20 Sean Pocknee 17:00

Robbie Chasing Zak through the Mud of Fleming Park, Eastleigh.