We had a not particularly large contingent who went off to the Middlesex Championships at Hillingdon Farm in Uxbridge, an iconic venue with the famous river crossing and the disused ski slope, The river crossing wasn’t used for this event, a disappointment for some. The top honours this time went to our Juniors with trophies and podium places won.

Paul Hart, team manager of the Juniors reports ‘Saturday’s Middlesex Championships was a phenomenal day of racing. The winter sunshine illuminated Hillingdon Farm, creating an ideal setting for a joyful and successful event for our junior athletes. The Under 11 boys kicked off the day with Niko Prodromou, Max Orsborne, and Monty Hine finishing consecutively in 31st, 35th, and 36th places. Katie Nelson followed with an impressive run, securing a photo finish for 4th place in her first year of racing.

Jack Davies delivered his best performance of the season so far, achieving a commendable 11th place in the highly competitive Under 13 boys race. His strength is visibly improving with each race as we progress into the second half of the season.

The highlight of the day was undoubtedly the Under 15 races. Robin Greenwood and Ben Davies excelled, claiming 2nd and 6th places respectively, and earning spots to represent Middlesex in the Inter Counties Championships. Both delivered the races of their lives. In the girls’ race, Jagna Falkowska emerged as the champion after an intense final 400 meters, where she overcame a challenge from the second-placed competitor despite battling a cold. Her performance was truly exceptional.

The day concluded with Adam Falkowski (9th) and Dylan Hanks (29th) navigating the churned-up, heavy ground in a very fast combined Under 17/Under 20 race. Their determination and effort were commendable. A big shout out to all our athletes who represented us so brilliantly. This was truly one of the best days of racing Trent Park Running Club has ever experienced.

Once the Juniors had shown their brilliance in the earlier races the women went out and showed what they had. Our women’s team consisted of just 4 runners – Anja Greenwood, Beata Falkowska, Bo Yu and Theodosia Green. Despite being well into the vet category they all ran superbly against generally younger runners. As a team they will have done well but the organisers only recognised the top 3 teams.

When the men took to the course we had just 5 runners taking on the 12k course, a tough ask on this course. The team were led home by Paul Brennan who was followed home by Carl Redondo, Paul Ward, Richie Allen and Eamonn Cullen. All ran strongly and turned in top performances. Again no team prizes which were only awarded to the top 3 teams.

One last performer was Luke Rogers who ran really well to finish 10th in the Under 20 category, We have high hopes for Luke as he moves into the Senior ranks. Well done to everyone who ran on the day and special thanks to Paul Brennan who again fulfilled the role of Team Manager.