Belgrave juniors at the Southern Counties XC Championships, January 2019

An excellent turn out from the Juniors with 14 athletes enjoying what were relatively benign conditions over a Parliament Hill course that is usually a quagmire in late-January.

The numbers competing for the Junior team were about the best we’ve seen to date, and everyone seemed to want to do it again, so well done everyone. We only had two athletes falling, two stopping to be ill, one deciding to call it a day at the top of the first hill, two getting to the start line only 30 seconds before the gun and one realising that those weeks of missed training had finally caught up with him.

With three pairs of lovely, new, white cross country shoes on show from our squad, they all returned to their bags a dirty grey after the race, ready for the London Schools X/C at Wormwood Scrubs on 6th and the Surrey League on 9th.

We managed an excellent 15th team place for the U13 Boys, with Monty Juxon first home in 22nd place and brother Jago close behind in 47th. Seb Cockerell followed in 131st and making up our team was Oliver Cunningham, who at least managed to find a bush in which to be ill during the race. Alex Kabysh obviously had the same bug as Oliver but also managed to finish, with a smile on his face as our 5th runner. Or maybe it was a grimace, it was hard to tell.

Lucy, Cosima and Lina: Smiling before their race. No photographs were made available to the press after the race!

U13, U15 girls

In the U13 Girls race we were represented by our first athlete home Lina Colas, then Lucy Jodrell and Cosima Reed, all running their first Southern. In the U15 Girls our first lady home was in-form Maddy Whitman, placing a terrific 22nd in what was a very competitive field, with ever-present Juliette Michot our second runner.

"That hill doesn't look too steep from here"
😂

U15 boys

Our U15 Boys representatives were Blaine Robinson, still tying his laces when the gun went, and Luca Barac, only 3 places behind Blaine - the laces on his white trainers were obviously rock solid. Luca said that he felt great at the finish. He clearly didn't run hard enough 😅.

No pressure Blaine, but yes, that's Luca on your tail

With Julius Bennett, our only representative in the U17 Men's race, deciding to call it a day after 600 metres, next to the Belgrave tent (coincidence, or convenience?), and Timin Kanani in the U20 Men's race running as if he was pulling a truck, both realised that a bit more training might be in order before the track season starts 😏