Impressive Moor Park debut for Draper (From Watford Observer)

Northwood athlete Sky Draper makes strong debut at Moor Park 10k

12:43pm Monday 26th September 2011 in News By Simon Mail

Sky Draper was the fastest female on her debut at the Moor Park 10k yesterday.

The 15-year-old Riverside Northwood member finished 25th overall on her first ever 10k run.

Draper said: "I'm really pleased with my performance, coming after a tough race [on Saturday]. I've been fortunate to win all the junior events at the Moor Park 10K and now it's great to win my first senior women's Moor Park 10K title at my first attempt.”

Draper only decided to enter on the morning of the race because she had run a tough 3K for Harrow AC the previous afternoon, at the South of England road relays, where she was seventh fastest in her leg out of 40 athletes.

The first 2.5K of Sunday’s event was within the grounds of Merchant Taylors' school before the runners went through Moor Park golf course, the Moor Park estate and back into MT's grounds for the final kilometre. It is a tough course with a long steep climb through the golf course.

Draper made a very quick start and found herself in the top ten. Unfortunately she suffered from painful blisters during the later stages of the race and had to ease back finishing with an impressive time of 41.22. The next female to finish was more than two minutes behind Draper.