Kings trophy Challenge

The Senior squad embarked on their first midweek fixture to the daunting course through Wimbledon Common on Wednesday 2nd October for 4.7 miles, through forest and gold course!

Turned away from the early toilet break, some runners had to embark on a long excursion to the toilet at the other end of the common, but the whole team were ready to go when the time came

The river wouldn't be an obstacle this year due to environmental reasons, and the deluge of rain that week so far hadn't actually made the course a quagmire

Stirring words from captain Messette who has impressed all with his leadership skills so far this year got the team ready, and a first appearance of XC legend Miss Tomes and coach Francis meant we were fully motivated

The race was a little confusing, with stewarding errors leading to at least 3 separate races being run, but a strong field including some of the best schools in the country would be a tough but rewarding field.

The boys all ran really well, and all can take great heart from their performances. All who had previously ran bettered their times, and the first-timers can be confident now they have run this distance

Results below

39th	Freddy Georgiou	25.37
58th	Malachi Messette	26.57
67th	Harry Smith	27.43
69th	Joseph Roberts	27.47
75th	Ebuka Nkamou	28.14
83rd	Chisoro Nkamuo	28.33
92nd	Paul Hewitt	29.44

6th at Kings

The Senior squad travelled the short distance to the prestigious Kings Trophy Race on Wimbledon College and ran with distinction the 4.5 miles run to finish in 6th place


Without last year's winner Ricky Lutakome and with some runners lacking miles in the legs, the expectations were for everyone to run well and those expectations were exceeded with a final placing of 6th and some excellent performances.


Special mention to Year 10 Freddy Georgiou who continues to impress at this level, plus Harry Smith & Peter Edwards who put some serious effort in to get back to their fitness levels


The first JFS finisher was Gianluca, showing the benefit of a summer's running, followed by Freddy and then Tambling, Jones and the much improved Malachi Messette


Well done to all the runners!

21	Gianluca Ercolano	27:19:00
27	Freddy Georgiou	28:02:00
33	Robbie Tambling	28:46:00
53	Jacob Jones	30:06:00
57	Malachi Messette	30:28:00
62	Alfie Smith	30:38:00
86	Harry Smith	32:03:00
96	Peter Edwards	32:42:0

SENIORS KINGS TROPHY SUCCESS

The Senior XC squad travelled to Wimbledon College on Wednesday 4/10 for the 4.5 mile Kings Trophy. This race has always been enjoyed by the runners, with an interesting and varied course through the Common, with a reasonably flat route through forested areas and even across a shin-deep river. Last year 6th place was secured with Ricky 2nd, and unforgettably the year before Ricky and the leading pack were directed the wrong way by a steward and ended up way down the field.

The team was not at full strength with driving lessons and theory tests being booked on the same afternoon, and 'forgotten kit' perhaps replacing 'not fit enough' however 8 runners set off from school hopeful of good performances.

The field was 140 runners, and the quality was high. Judd and St Albans, national XC powerhouses were in attendance, as well as other respected schools.

The team, showed above included Freddy Georgiou Yr 9 and Joe Logue Yr11 for their first experience of this distance and in a senior race.

The runners began and were soon lost from sight, however reports filtered back that Ricky was in the lead at the half-way point, could he hold on until the finish?

The answer is yes, and indeed with ease to become the first JFS runner to win this race in 32 years!

The results are listed below, with times from last year in the final column

Pos	Runner	Time	Time 2016 (Pos)
1	Ricky Lutakome	24.38	25.04 (2)
33	Ryan Galvin	28.36	Inj
35	Gianluca Ercolano	28.42	28.45 (35)
41	Jacob Jones	28.54	29.51 (52)
45	Freddy georgiou	28.59	N/A
65	Alfie Smith	30.17	30.03 (55)
90	Joe Logue	31.21	N/A
	Harry Smith	INJ

A final position of 5th was achieved

Well done to all the runners. Ricky, fantastic performance to win by 30 seconds from 2nd place, hopefully the first success of many this year. Ryan showed his class once again, finishing in front of the Seb Coe/Steve Ovett of JFS Gianluca and Jacob. Freddy ran an incredible time for a Year 9 and Alfie showed he is swiftly getting back to full fitness. Joe Logue can be very proud of hie run, and Harry wisely had to pull out due to an recurring hamstring issue.

Doughnuts were gleefully eaten afterwards, Jacob indulging in 6 by himself! As the JFS runners hoovered up the left-over we travelled back to JFS pleased with a very good performance and enthused by Ricky's win.

Onwards and Upwards to the challenges to come!

ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL DAY ON THE COMMON

Wednesday 5th October saw the Senior Squad travel to Wimbledon Common for the prestigious Kings Trophy.

This is an extremely prestigious event which draws all of the big guns of school XC, including the 2 top schools in the country St.Albans and Judd.

A 5th place finish last year was fantastic, but Ricky Lutakome also found himself mis-directed along with several other front-runners by an errant steward and so was denied the chance to compete for the medals. He was keen for revenge!

The weather was perfect, if the parking of the minibus was not, and unusually we arrived in plenty of time for the start.

The course is a 4.5 miles mixed terrain with woodland and open field, it included a water feature around half way around, and the added danger of flying golf balls!

Alfie Smith, currently a Year 8 had been picked to see how he did over the longer distance, he would as it turns out have a fantastic race.

The results are below with the 2015 times in brackets

 

    2 Lutakome  25.04

     35 Ercolano  28.45 (2015 - 31.06)

     39 Wells  29.02

     47 Galvin A  29.22 (29.33)

     52 Jones  29.51 (31.11)

     55 Smith A  30.03

     92 Daburn  32.07

    105 McAllister  33.09 (33.42)

    107 Halfacre O  33.13

    114 Halfacre J  34.17 (35.42)

    138 Hodgson  38.42

    144 Galvin R  inj

                            155 runners              

                         21 teams

Team Result:

   6^th   A Team

   17^th  B Team   (4^th B team)   

 

Some fantastic performances put in by all the runners

 

Well done Ricky on finishing 2nd, close to being the first JFS student to win this race since 1985 - next year maybe!

 

Gianluca showed his summer practice has paid off by storming into the 2nd Fisher finisher

 

Alfie Smith defied all pre-race expectations to finish in the top 6 JFS finishers and thus A Team with a great time (he is 5 years younger than some of the runners!)

 

Unfortunately Ryan was running a strong race before injury got the better of him

 

Below are some photos of the day!

Skipper McAllister rallies the troops

Last few seconds before the start

Ricky eyeing up the competition 

A large field

Here are some action shots of the runners!

Alex Galvin

Dan Hodgson

Finley Wells

Jacob Jones closely followed by Alfie Smith

Joe Halfacre

Oscar Halfacre

Ricky Lutakome (and Mr Fell's shadow)

Ryan Galvin (pre-injury) and Gianluca Ercolano

Skipper Sean McAllister