Monday, 27 February 2017

GREAT SUCCESS AT HARROW!

CROSS COUNTRY RESULTS

Sunday 26^th February

South East Schools Championships at Harrow School

A fantastic day was had at the sumptuous surroundings at Harrow at the South East XC Championships and the JFS runners once again came up trumps and did the school proud!

The muddy, undulating course would be a challenge on a cold and blustery day. Spikes were a must if possible. The Junior team was very young, only one Year 9 runners in a race open to years 7-9 and so expectation was reasonably low but experience to be gained for future years.

As it turned out the boys performed superbly and finished in 4th position - a great result!

Juniors (Yrs7-9) 2.25 miles

6. Georgiou 13.18 (2016 – 15.49)

16. A Smith 13.56

46. Conroy 15.35

47. Nkamuo 15.41

48. Edwards 15.55 (2016- 16.38)

54. Conway 16.09

TEAM PLACE 4^th 74 runners

Well done, especially year 7s who were running with Year 9s

The Seniors had 2 laps to run, 4.4 miles of tough terrain, but excelled themselves to finish in 3rd place.

Seniors

2. Lutakome 24.36

15. Wells 27.12

16. R Galvin 27.12

32. Jones 28.27

38. H Smith 28.37

55. A Galvin 29.45

56. Ercolano 29.51

77. J Halfacre 36.21

TEAM PLACE 3^rd 79 runners

Fantastic runs on a tough and muddy course

Tuesday, 14 February 2017

Roundshaw Parkrun Painted Blue and Yellow

John Fisher runners dominated the Roundhaw 5k Parkrun last Saturday, with 9 of the top 11 finishers running in the blue and yellow of JFS.

With qualification for the Mini-Marathon on the line good numbers turned up to be greeted with arctic conditions of cold and snow. This did not deter our hardy athletes however and they all ran fantastically.

Name	Year	Position	Time
Ricky Lutakome	12	1^st	16.26
Jacob Jones	11	2^nd	18.13
Gianluca Ercolano	11	3^rd	19.07 (New PB)
Ryan Galvin	12	8^th at Nonsuch	19.10
Joe Logue	10	5^th	20.32
Freddy Georgiou	8	6^th	20.58
Peter Edwards	9	8^th	21.31 (New PB)
Joseph Conroy	8	9^th	21.46
Ebuka Nkamuo	7	10^th	22.03
Matthew Conway	7	11^th	22.04
Alex Galvin	12	49^th at Nonsuch	22.27
Paul Hewitt	7	24^th	24.14
John Hilario	7	26^th	24.25
Charlie Kitchen	7	36^th	26.27
Marcus Littlewood	7	59^th	N/A
Jacob Horle	7	71^st	31.48

RADLEY RUN PRODUCES THE GOODS AGAIN!

The Radley Relays have been a recent addition to the Cross-Country calendar but an extremely welcome one. A good course, at a school steeped in history, alongside the fact we have a good chance of coming away with medals - which happened again this week!

The race is near Oxford, and so an 11.00 meet at school saw all runners present and correct - which in itself was a great start - and we set off. A short stop at the now-familiar Oxford services saw us squeeze into packed car park at Radley and preparations made.

It was bitterly cold, and the course was known to be very muddy in places. The Inters Team had won the relay last year - and they now made up the Senior Team, and the good form of all the runners meant that sights were well and truly set on more medal glory.

Junior, Inter and Senior teams all ran together, with different coloured numbers to enable the different contests to be understood. With Miss Tomes keeping check at the finish and Francis supporting from the course, Mr Fell took hi customary position at the start of the finishing push.

For the Seniors, Ryan Galvin took the first leg and produced an excellent time, running in as 5th place. He handed onto Finley Wells who powered away and took us closer to the medals. Alex then ran his customary solid run, to leave Ricky in 4th place, but with ground to make up. Ground he did make up, overtaking the two runners ahead of him, and bearing down on the leader when the course finished with JFS in 2nd place. Ricky had run the course in 10.42, thus recording the fastest time of the day.

This was a great achievement, all ran well, the tactics proved spot on, and the team can return next year at the top of the age group and aim for the Gold

SENIORS

R Galvin 11.57 (11.52)

Wells 12.05

A Galvin 12.11 (12.15 – 2016)

Lutakome 10.42 (11.13) FASTEST LAP OVERALL

RUNNERS UP 21 teams

The Inters had high hopes of success, but ultimately were just pushed into 4th place despite some excellent performances. Jacob continued his outstanding recent form with a fantastic first leg with a great time. Gianluca then continued the excellent start, followed by Harry - showing he is near to his best form with every run - and then finished by Alfie Smith, who belied his Year 8 school year to run a top time. Fourth place was an excellent finish and the whole team should be very pleased with themselves!

INTERS

Jones 12.02

Ercolano 12.29 (12.45 - 2016)

Smith H 12.38 (12.39)

Smith A 12.48

4^th place 17 teams

Wednesday, 8 February 2017

MEDAL SUCCESS AT WELLINGTON!

WELLINGTON RELAYS – 4^th February

Just one junior and one inter team competed today as 4 of our senior squad were representing Surrey in an Inter-counties fixture in Kent. A new course around the lakes and in view of the impressive frontage of Wellington College was walked and the boys were raring to go. Many of the public schools with good cross country records attend this event, but this did not deter the JFS runners.

A powerful leg (2^nd fastest junior of the day) by Alfie put us in 2^nd place at the end of the first leg. This put the pressure on Ebuka, Peter, Leo and Matthew to keep this position as the legs unfolded. They were able to do this until right at the end when Matthew (yr 7) was up against a yr9 boy from Radley College and just couldn’t keep up with him despite a valiant effort. Highgate were the winners. The whole team should be extremely pleased with their performance.

In this event the inters always race with the seniors, but the results are separated out at the end. This makes it a very exciting, competitive and a bit confusing unless you can work out who is an inter and who is a senior! Jacob ran first today and came back in a superb 2^nd place in the inters with the 2^nd fastest time of the day. Gianluca also had a fantastic run to record the 6^th fastest time. Harry still coming back from injury and Ben were determined to keep our 2^nd position and did so. Alfie, making up the inters team, did not disappoint and ran another 7 minute leg to make sure that he was going home with TWO medals, much to his satisfaction. Tonbridge were the winners.

Monday, 6 February 2017

FURTHER SUCCESS AT NATIONALS!

NATIONAL U19 RELAY AT HENRY VIII SCHOOL, COVENTRY

1^st February

The annual pilgrimage to Coventry is always eagerly anticipated by the Senior team despite the lengthy journey. A stop at Oxford services to fill up with food is welcomed with Subway seemingly the nutrition of choice this year!

This race draws the best 50 teams in the country. Our ambitious target was to break the top 10 places for the first time ever. Last year we were the 11^th A team. Careful leg order consideration is vital and with 9 of the 12 runners having run last year the 2 mile course was familiar to them.

The first leg is tough as most schools put their fastest runner on it, however, Alex and Harry battled through to put us in a fair position meaning that, certainly for the A team, they could hope to start moving up gradually through the field. The main breakthrough came on the 4^th leg when Ricky moved up from 25^th place to 10^th – a fantastic run. It was left to Jacob and Ryan to hang on to it. Despite a valiant effort we dropped to 13^th place. Ryan, in particular, was unfortunate to be running on the same leg as the Olympic youth triathlon champion running for Loughborough College, who made the 2 miles look like a walk in the park, as well as other known very fast runners.

Both teams beat their overall times from last year and should be proud to know that they are still the best comprehensive school at this event. Well done to all of the squad.

Lutakome 11.57

Galvin R 13.18

Galvin A 13.28

Daburn 14.41

Smith H 14.11

Wells 13.12

Ercolano 13.37 (2016 - 14.11)

Halfacre J 15.54

Jones 13.28 (14.19)

Hodgson 14.47 (15.40)

Brant 14.38

Smith A 14.13

RESULTS A team 13^th

B team 41^st

Ricky – 8^th fastest lap.

51 UK teams

306 runners

LEAGUE RELAYS AT HOME 28th January

This was quite a low key fixture as a number of runners were competing in the South of England champs on Parliament Hill. Tiffin, Oxted and Whitgift were able to bring teams. Fortunately the weather was kind to us with the rain just about holding off. It really does make a difference particularly when the start and finish lines are right in the middle of the playing fields.

4 good legs from the juniors saw them finish second to an always impressive team from Whitgift. Harry running for the first time since a long spell injured volunteered for an extra leg to complete our team and showed a good consistency in his times.

Gianluca and Jacob proved their good form ready for the National relay next week in Coventry. Joe, in his last season, is always a reliable team member who is really enjoying his running even though he knows he will never be as quick as some of the team!

Medals are awarded for the overall winners of the series of 3 league relays. Although finishing in 2^nd places today we had done enough in prior relays to be named WINNERS in both the junior and senior age groups. The number of medals is limited so they will be given to the boys who have taken part in the most league relays this year.

JUNIORS

JOHN FISHER A	NKAMUO 6.14	CONWAY 6.29	SMITH A 6.08	KITCHEN 7.06	2
OXTED A	6.19	6.41	6.44	6.28	3
TIFFIN A	7.08	7.40	9.01	6.43	6
WHITGIFT A	6.06	6.28	6.57	6.11	1
WHITGIFT B	6.40	7.21	6.42	7.13	4
WHITGIFT C	7.01	7.10	7.25	7.25	5