The final Metropolitan League fixture of the season took place on Saturday 8th January. 16 ladies turned out to take on the insanely muddy Trent Park course, which was an amended course due to roaming cows! It was the 3rd time this season with the exact same attendance in the ladies race and the 2nd in a row, one for stats!
Catriona Paterson was the first lady home, finishing in an impressive 12th position overall, following 3 straight 16th placed finishes. Catriona also placed 10th position overall across the full Met League season, well done!
Making up our A team was Catriona 12th, Hannah 16th, Heather 49th, Katie N 72nd, Nikki 73rd and Caroline 93rd.
The B team consisted of Freya 99th, Hollie 102nd, Zoe 106th, Katie S 111th, Karen 117.
In the C team was Lynn 118th, Stephanie 125th, Pauline 137th, Ruth 154th and Vicky 160th.
Team spirit was perfectly captured in a photo of Nikki and Katie N, holding hands whilst completing the muddy course!
Photo credit Mark Easton.
In the Vets race, 9 ladies competed, all bringing home valuable points!
The ladies A team finished a strong 6th place overall with a total of 1129 points! This is a fantastic improvement on the 9th place finish last year and a total gain of 358 points! There was also success in the B team, who finished in 4th place, unfortunately missing out on promotion to division 1.
A huge congratulations to our C team on gaining promotion to division 2! Finishing in 1st place in division 3, with a total of 273 points. A very strongly contended battle with Harrow AC, who finished 4 points behind in 2nd place.
The Vets league saw Hillingdon A team finish in 8th place in division 1, a tight battle with ES&M and Highgate Harriers. Our Vets B team enjoyed promotion from division 2, finishing 1st place, taking the division by storm! Well done ladies! The C team maintained position in division 2, finishing in 9th place.
24 men turned up to take on the Trent Park course. Kallum Pritchard led the way for HAC men, finishing in 48th place, followed by James Laing in 67th place.
Catriona Paterson was the first lady home, finishing in an impressive 12th position overall, following 3 straight 16th placed finishes. Catriona also placed 10th position overall across the full Met League season, well done!
Making up our A team was Kallum 48th, James 67th, Harry 116th, William 124th, Daniel 129th, Mohammed 142nd, Guy 144th, Ryan 185th, Zakariya 232rd, Steve 252nd, Paul 254th and Matt 276th.
In our B team was Ed 290th, David 293rd, Jeff 294th, Alan 312th, Jeremy 314th, Andrew 328th, Mike 332nd, Chris 345th, Richard 361st and Michael 371st.
The C team consisted of Brian 378th and Trevor 379th.
In terms of overall season results, the mens A team finished 10th place in division 1. The B team finished 11th place in division 2. Unfortunately the C team have been relegated to division 3, after finishing in 15th place.
The Vets league saw Hillingdon A team finish in 12th place in division 1. Our Vets B team finished 8th in division 2 and sadly our C team have been relegated to division 3, finishing in 15th place
A huge congratulations and thank you to everyone who competed on behalf of the club this year. The Met League is always a popular and well enjoyed fixture amongst athletes from juniors to seniors. We hosted social evening for each of the races back at our Clubhouse which are always well attended.
Appreciation goes out to everyone who has contributed this season, from athletes, volunteers, marshals and team managers. Also a thank you to our amazing Clubhouse team, without them the social evenings wouldn’t be possible, which is always a great way to end an enjoyable and especially from the Trent Park course, a muddy day of cross country!
We now look forward to the summer calendar, but so eagerly await for the next edition of the Metropolitan Cross Country League to start!
A huge thank you to Rob Thompson for the fantastic photos this season!
