A number of the Harriers middle Distance squad took full advantage of a rare outing over cross country with a private race series staged by Active Training World at the Merchant Taylor’s School grounds in Northwood. With ongoing disruption to the cross country season due to the escalating Covid virus this could well be one of the few races held over the season.
The very hilly terrain of Merchant Taylor’s School in Northwood hosted the second cross country race on Saturday 19th December where KTH had some U18 athletes (Age limited by the England Athletics covid regulations) in action. The conditions were fine with sunshine but the conditions were very wet under foot. The race was given the green light to be run in a Covid secure environment with runners going off in waves of 20 and the competitors competing in a social distanced manner.
The U11 race was very popular with 120 runners competing over the 2k course. Running for KTH was 9 year old Rafferty Davey who put in a terrific performance to continue his strong performances when racing over cross country compared to track. Davey still has two years to run in this age group had a fantastic race, battling hard over the 2k course he remained in touch with the leading group for the much of the race. During the final 200m the determined youngster held off a sprint from an older athlete to really dig in and battled to finish in a superb 6th place in 8:32.
9 Year old Rafferty Davey terrific run for 6th place in the U11 race
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Rafferty's older sister Jemima was up next in the U13 race. Bottom year Davey who had a fantastic track season where she ranked 3rd in the UK over 1500m has made hill-work a feature of her training during the recent lockdown but found the 2 lap, 3k course heavy going and was not helped with a stitch inside the first km. Nevertheless, despite a long 300m steep incline a feature of the course she did not give up throughout the race and continued to fight finishing in a fantastic 4th place in 14:11 holding off Chiltern Harrier Emily ford by just 1 second and beating local rival Ella Darby from Rugby & Northampton (14:33). There were 67 athletes competing.
Jemima Davey powering her way to a brilliant 4th place in the U13G race
Bottom year U15 Dylan White was also in action and he had a solid race to finish in 26th place over the 4km course in 17:31 out of the 53 strong field & U20 Amelia McMurtrie also ran well in her first outing to finish 5th female over the 5km course in 23:42 in the severely reduced field due to the covid U18 ruling.
Over the most difficult of years the KTH youngsters continue to train hard despite the restrictions and many have produced top performances in the few races staged on track & XC, or in the various time trials staged by the club. Well done to everybody who has continued to work hard, 2021 should bring better prospects for a more normal season.