National Schools

Huge congratulations to Ricky Lutakome, Ryan Galvin and Finley Wells who all ran in this weekends National Schools Final.

A tough, wet 7.2km course saw the boys - all of whom are a year young - finish well and help Sutton to finish 14th out of 39 counties represented.

Ricky (22nd), Ryan (236th) and Finley (239th) all ran really well, and to have 3 JFS runners competing at this level is a real honour and they are great ambassadors for our school.

Hopefully our younger runners can gain extra motivation seeing the level these three have got to!

Season Ends at St Teddies

Tuesday 14^th March 2017

St Edwards ReLay, Oxford

     

A Galvin  9.57 

Wells  9.43

Lutakome  8.39  FASTEST LAP OVERALL

R Galvin   9.34 

4th team                         32  teams

Ercolano   9.49

Smith H  9.56

Jones  9.55

Georgiou  10.40

12th team                                    4th B team

Daburn   10.51

Logue  10.30

Edwards  11.24

Brant  10.56

23rd team                                    3rd C team

The season ended with a very positive trip to St Edwards College Oxford for a squad containing a mixture of age groups. This was the first time we have ran at this event, and hopes were high for a medal. After the customary pit stop at Oxford Services - where we have reserved seating - we arrived in good time to see a course expertly marked, mostly flat, with a few mini hills to deal with.

With 3 teams entered the anticipation rose as the first legs began to get ready. A large field was in attendance and looked to be of a good quality.

As you can see from the results above the boys all ran with great heart and pace, but the 2 winning teams were way ahead of all the others, and despite gaining at least 5 places on his last leg, Ricky was just too far from the 3rd place team to bring home a medal. He did however secure a tied fastest leg medal.

Gianluca finally managed to beat Jacob for the first time since Christmas - Jacob was not amused - and special mention to Joe Logue who impressed. Freddy - a Year 8 - was not overawed at all. Special mention to Peter Edwards who was reserve on the day but bought his kit to school and wa required following injury to Alfie Smith.

Following a pasta lunch, the squad travelled back to JFS pleased that for another season we retain the title of Best Cross-Country Comprehensive in the Country for another year!

Medalfest at SLH!

Saturday afternoon saw our local running club, South London Harriers, put on their schools’ race competition. For many of the JFS runners, particularly the younger ones, this is the last race of a very busy season. Held on Farthing Downs the courses are challenging, especially the uphill part for the first mile. Despite missing a few key runners who were attending the Croydon mini marathon trials put on at the same time, we had a good attendance by juniors and seniors which ensured that we could be competitive in what was a high quality and larger than usual field.

Our junior team running against mainly year 9s did well to finish in 3^rd team place. Freddy continued to show his improvement this year and the year 7s got round in good times.

The senior team continued their outstanding season finishing runners up to a strong Judd team. Ricky ran a well-judged race to finish a fairly easy winner. He was then able to watch his team mates run in in fine style to claim yet more medals this term. Next week a final relay fixture for them at St Edwards Oxford finishes this successful school season. Good luck to those running in county fixtures and the English Schools in Norwich in the coming weeks as well as the London mini marathon for Sutton or Croydon. More about that as we find out for sure which boys have qualified, however, at this stage we believe that it is a record number from JFS.

Finally, our best wishes go to Joe Halfacre and Sean McAllister as their final A Level exams approach rapidly. We hope that they will be able to achieve their university aspirations. They have been a valuable part of the cross country squad for 7 years. Most impressive is that they have given their all over some of the toughest courses used at schoolboy level and still come back smiling. Try to continue your running lads, between visits to the student union bar, the pool tables and even possibly the library!

South London Harriers Schools Races

                                                                                                                                                                                                  

JUNIORS

  6  Georgiou  12.33                                    

26  Edwards  13.33           3^rd team

32  Nkamuo 

42  Conway

46  Anoop 

53  Hewitt             7^th   (2^nd B team)

54  Hilario

62  Miles                                  65 runners    

INTERS

18 Logue  17.42                      42 runners

SENIORS

WINNER  Lutakome   20.05

  9  R Galvin   21.27                     RUNNERS UP

12  Jones   22.17

15  A Galvin  23.13

37  Daburn

53  J Halfacre

Missing times added when available                   

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

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

4th place                17 teams

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.

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