In a change from the traditional pattern, the first race of the League took place at ThornesPark, Wakefield. Amazingly, the weather was fine throughout, though underfoot conditions were rather tricky.
A total of 24 juniors took part, many of them running their first ever League race, and overall the results were very promising. Even more important than that was the enthusiasm shown, and the encouragement given to fellow runners: many Juniors stayed on to cheer on the Seniors, and I know how much that was appreciated.
The Club was represented in every race, though only 3 teams managed to score: the U11 Boys came 6th, the U13 Boys 9th and the U15 Girls 5th.
Individually, there were some outstanding performances: Joseph Carnelley came 3rd in the U11 Boys, Vicki Merrick came 3rd in the U15 Girls, and Emile Cairess 1st in the U17 Men, the last two mentioned running at the bottom of their respective age-groups. There were, however, many more fine runs, as can be seen from the following individual results:
U11 Boys: 3rd Joseph Carnelley; 36 Joseph Childs; 37th Dylan Thornton; 39th Leo Maitland; 41st Harry Miller.
U11 Girls: 45th Riannon Appleyard.
U13 Boys: 39th Joseph Treasure-Jones; 46th Jonathan Sutcliffe; 47th Theo Connolly; 53rd Jack Bradley; 62nd Mason Cameron
U13 Girls: 14th Katie Smith; 28th Lucy Miller; 52nd Kiran Bashir; 61st Lucy Shutt.
U15 Boys: 63rd Adam Thompson; 65th Ryan Bradley.
U15 Girls: 3rd Vicki Merrick; 24th Anna Whitehead; 33rd Abi White; 48th Maia Cameron.
U17 Men: 1st Emile Cairess.
U17 Women: 20th Sarah Dewhirst; 29th Katy Boden.
Well done to all of the runners, and many thanks to parents and supporters for their great contribution to the team effort. We now hope that, given that the next race is on a Saturday, we can improve on this performance, especially from the team point of view.
Tony Kingham