2020 Annual Review - Part 1

With London in Lockdown 3 and no Christmas Racing we take the opportunity to look back at some of the Athletic highlights from 2020 (yes, there were lots of them)

This part covers the first 3 months of the year when eerything was almost normal and what had until then been a classic XC season with mud soaked courses and none of us knew what Social Distancing or the Rule of 6 meant.

January

The Ally Pally Hill which sadly looks unlikely to be repeated for the forseeable future

The Ally Pally Hill which sadly looks unlikely to be repeated for the forseeable future

  • Seyfu Jamaal started the year with a Club Record 5km at Hyde Park a speedy 14:42

  • The Club launched a new look website.

  • At the Lee Valley New Year Open 4 Junior Club Indoor Records were broken a taste of what was to come during 2020 where are Juniors reached new heights..

  • Alex Sweet with a time of 1:14.51 finished 3rd in the Victoria Park Half Marathon

  • The Middlesex XC Championships at Wormwood Scrubs again saw Seyfu excel taking the U20M Title. There were silver medals for Jem O’Flaherty, Mimi Blake, Thomas Archer, Ben Redland and Kiara Corkin. The club retained the U17M and U15B titles with 2nd places in the Senior Men, U17W, U13B and U11G age groups with a Bronze for the Senior Women.

  • The Club Hosted the Met League at Ally Pally with over 1,000 runners taking part in what proved to be an epic mud bath. The Women were 1st with Beth Hawley finishing 3rd, while the Men finished 3rd with Seyfu’s first home in 4th place.

  • At the Southern Indoor Championships Mia Rosen struck gold in the U13G 800m recording a championship best time of 2:29.93 and New Club Record as did Benjy Bediako in the U13B 800m.

  • Thomas Archer finished 3rd in the prestigous Senior Knowle Run in Sevenoaks.

  • Eleanor Ball set a new Senior Women 60m record of 8:04s in Eltham.

  • The Month finished in the deep mud of Hampstead Heath with the Southern XC Champs. The U17M produced one of the Clubs best ever performances finishing 4th with Thomas Archer 5th overall supoorted by Jake Evans, Ruairi McGonagle and Oliver O’Connor. The Senior Women were 7th and Men 12th team.

Mens’ Met League Team at Ally Pally

Mens’ Met League Team at Ally Pally

February

Senior Women at the Southern’s

Senior Women at the Southern’s

  • Mia Rosen was back at Lee Valley to improve her U13G Club record to 2:27.88. Tony Killiea set a new V55 Indoor 800m record at the same meeting.

  • Kimon Doulis was 11th in the Watford Half Marathon with Sarah Swinhoe finishing the 9th Woman.

  • At Trent Park the Senior Women clinched the Met League Title. With the Senior Men 3rd the Club missed out on the Howard Williams Trophy for overall Club winners by the tightest of margins to Highgate Harriers. Pick of the individual performances on the day was Jake Evans who won the Junior Mens Race.

  • The Spring Storms took their toll with races cancelled and for the first time in it’s long history the NWLL XC League having to end prematurely with only 3 of the 5 race meetings completed.

  • Amy Cook was 2nd woman in the Battersea 5km and Olivia Desborough 5th in the 10km race.

  • Scarlett Parker and Mary Kehoe set new Club Vet records at the SCVAC Indoor Championships at Lee Valley..

  • In the County School races Jake Evans was 4th in the U17M London Champs, in the Middlesex Champs Oliver O’Connor was 3rd in U17M, Mimi Blake 2nd in the U17W, Spike Blake 1st in the U15B and Ben Redland 4th in the U13B.

  • The end of the month saw the National XC Championships at a very wet Nottingham where the U17M Team (Archer, Evans, McGonagle and Diamond) finished a fantastic 10th place. In another great performance Seyfu was the 6th Junior Man. In the Senior Races the

    Men were 28th and a weakened Womens team 46th.

Senior Women with Met League Trophy

Senior Women with Met League Trophy

March

  • Adrian Essex won Gold at the British Masters Pentathalon at Lee Valley.

  • The Juniors again set 4 new club records in one evening at the Lee Valley Open.

  • Deji Agdede made the U20M 400m semi-final at the England Indoor Championships in Sheffield.

  • Lenny Martin was 2nd in the Coastal Trail Series at Banburgh, Northumberland.

  • Seyfu Jamaal was 21st overall and Julia Bijl the 27th woman in the Vitality Big Half. Benji Bediako was 2nd in the Vitality Little Half.

  • Eleanor Ball broke the Club Senior Women 60m indoor record again.

  • Alex Sweet was 12th in the Hillingdon 20.

  • The re-arranged Middlesex Masters XC at Staneborough Lakes saw the Vet Women win Gold in the V45 category. Ruth Miller won the silver in the V55 age group with Sue Edie and Chris Vincent both winning bronze medals.

  • Karina Kaufmann, Elinor East and Gabi Johnson represented Great Britain at the ETU Duathalon Championships in Portugal..

  • Mark Lawrence set a new Club V45 record while winning silver at the British Masters Indoor Championships. Adrian Essex won V65 Bronze in the 200m.

  • Thomas Archer finished 6th U17M at the National Schools XC Championships in Liverpool, 7 other young Heathsiders also took part representing their Counties.

  • Eleanor Ball (60m), Lily Woodcock (1,500m) and Sam Ingram (Pole Vault) all took Gold at the Middlesex Indoor Championships at Lee Valley. There were also medals for Claudia Bioh (60m), Amara Odeogberin (800m), Mia Manttan (1,500m) and Joel Hawes (Shot Put).

And then that was that, soon after the Middlesex Indoors Lockdown 1# was imposed and all Athletics and Club activity stopped.

Part 2 covers the rest of the year.

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