A new U13 club record and Sarah Swinhoe wins the North Downs half marathon

This week’s report includes a round-up from the London Youth Games, trail races in the North and South Downs National Park, a win from Sarah Swinhoe and a new U13 club record from Benjy Bediako, as well as PBs from Battersea Park.

London Youth Games 

Simon Baker sent the following report from the London Youth Games:

”“This weekend saw the climax of the London Youth Games, the largest multi sport event in Europe, involving school children from across London representing their Borough.  In the Quadkids tournament for School yrs 5 and 6 Kiara Corkin scoring over 220 points represented Islington which finished 4th overall in the competition.

In the Yr7&8 Track and Field Finals also held at Crystal Palace a number of Juniors took part including Izzy Watkins who despite running against girls a year older finished 3rd in a time of 2:24 improving by 11 sec her PB and U13G club record set at the Middlesex Championships in May.”

Simon also reports on another great performance from Liam Garrett, who ran for SBH in their UYDL match, finishing 3rd in the 1500m in 4:03.80 and first in the 3000M race (8:44.88).

Trail races: Serpent 50k trail, North Downs Half Marathon, Orion Forest 5

Heathsiders ran in at least 3 trail races this week.  Rob Shulman ran the longest race on Saturday – the 50K Serpent Trail in the South Downs National Park and did well, finishing 4th male and 5th overall in 4 hours and 40 minutes. 

Meanwhile, Gavin Evans and Sarah Swinhoe took on the North Downs, simultaneously testing their navigation skills.  Gavin sent in the following report: 

“Sarah Swinhoe continued her remarkable run in hilly off-road long distance events by winning the North Downs Half Marathon. She has also twice won the South Downs Marathon, among others.

She finished in 12th place overall (out of 195 finishers and many more starters) – more than four minutes ahead of the second woman who was probably 20 years younger. And that was despite running it in trainers in the wet and sometimes muddy conditions, bumping her head on a branch along the way, and taking it at jogging pace for the first couple of miles, determined to keep it as a Sunday run rather than a race. Her time was 1:53:24.

This was a half marathon that put the gruel into gruelling – an out-and-back 13.1-mile cross-country route with huge, precarious hills, lots of tricky terrain and plenty of farm gates to open and close. I guess it’s what some would call a ‘technical’ course (a word that also seems to be used for running shirts and all sorts of things).

I managed to get lost four times, once doing the mortifying thing of leading another runner seriously off-piste. We found ourselves on a tar road and eventually realised we’d gone astray. I was so embarrassed that I shot ahead, and took another wrong turn, only to meet the fellow on my return. ‘Not again,’ he said. I eventually arrived well behind Sarah in 13th place, with my Garmin showing 13.5 miles.

Nuno Otero, running his first race for Heathside, pulled a muscle along the way and limped in in 148th place, but with a smile on his face. Each of us vowed to do it again next year.”

Finally, Liam Hazelton, Richard Peachment and Louisa Pointon ran a five mile race in Epping Forest, competing in the Orion Forest Five.  All ran well with Liam (34:10) and Louisa (36:39) putting the finishing touches to their preparations for their imminent ultramarathon.

Road races

Quite a few Heathsiders went to Battersea Park last week, albeit for different races.

Sion Lewis had a great run, reporting “I came 19th on the Wednesday night edition of the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge in a pb time of 18:40 (3.5 miles/5.6km)”.  Tara Shrestha Carney set a new PB (20:16) there on Saturday in the Battersea 5000m Open.

Meanwhile 7 Heathsiders went to Battersea Park to run in the Kangaroo Hop 5K last Monday.  Michael Corkings led Heathsiders home in a super-speedy time of 17:39, followed closely by a similarly speedy of Joe McKeown. Meanwhile Rebecca Marshall can be congratutlated for coming in as first Heathside women in a race that was at least 5 times shorter and flatter than her preferred races, whilst  Pete Crockford received a medal for coming 2nd V60 and Philip Hogg took his pacing to a new level, finishing in exactly 20 minutes.

Two Heathsiders ran in the Regents Park 10K last Sunday, with Carl Heap (45:32) finishing 3rd V60, and Marianne Gibson finishing in 54:43.

Ealing Summer Mile

Amy Spiller reports from Ealing: “Benjy Bediako (u13) took part in the first of the summer series of one mile road races in Ealing on Friday. He went with the aim of trying to beat the u13 club record. He was not disappointed and managed a time of 5 mins 34 secs, knocking 6 sec off the previous record. It's a great little event, with an accurately  measured route and provides an opportunity to race a mile on the road. It takes place every Friday in July.  Now that he knows the course he'll be there next week to try and go faster.” 

Kim Butler also ran well, finishing in 7:07.

Multisports

Elinor East was in Wales for the weekend, taking part in Long Course Weekend Wales, a 3-day multisport event spread over 3 days, comprising a 4k sea swim, a 180k bike ride and a marathon.  She had a great performance, coming 9th female (out of 124) and 73rd overall (out of 489), commenting: “Fantastically organised in beautiful Pembrokeshire and of course incredibly hilly!”.

Parkruns

Many Heathsiders took part in parkruns this weekend.  Congratulations for being the highest ranking Heathsider in parkruns (3rd) go to Chiara Borg (19:55) and Melvin Lewis (Grovelands, 18:55).  Lewis Hatfull was delighted to report coming 4th with a new PB (19:55) at Pymmes Park, building on his PB at the Finsbury Park 5000s the previous week.  The full results can be found here.

Results

UKYDL UAG League Division South Premier, Hendon, 30th June 2019

1500m (U20M)

Liam Garrett 4:06.80 A 3rd 

3000m (U20M)

Liam Garrett 8:44.88 A 1st

London Year 7&8 T&F Championships, Mile End, 11th June 2019

1500m (U13G)

7th Amara Odeogberin 5:40.1 PB (by over 9 sec)

11th Libby Judd Hawkes 6:18.4 PB (by over 16 sec)

BMC Regional Races, Wormwood Scrubs, 3rd July 2019

800m

C 4th Ben Bloom 2:03.22 PB

D 6th Rosa Serafini 2:18.65

1500m

A 4th Liam Garrett (U20) 4:01.10

6th Charles Handy 4:05.82

TVH Open Graded Series, Wormwood Scrubs, 3rd July 2019

3000m

SX 3rd Isobel Rea (V40) 11:08.75

50K Serpent Trail, South Down, 6th  July 2019

5 Rob Shulman 4:40 (4th M)

North Downs Half Marathon, Reigate, Sunday July 7

95 finishers

12th Sarah Swinhoe – 1:53:24 (first woman)

13th Gavin Evans – 1:55:46

148th Nuno Otero – 2:52:31

Orion 5 Mile Race, Epping, 6th July 2019

34th Liam Hazelton 34:10

49th Richard Peachment (V50) 35.35

62nd Louisa Pointon 36:39

Battersea 5000m Open, Battersea, 6th July 2019

SXD 6th Tara Shrestha Carney (U23) 20:15.55 PB

JP Morgan Corporate Challenge, Wednesday 3rd July 2019

33 Sion Lewis 18:40

Kangaroo hop 5K, Battersea Park, 8th July 2019

41 Michael Corkings  17:39

42 Joseph McKeown 17:46

62 Pete Crockford 18:50 (2nd V60)

78 Ian Anderson 19:41

83 Matthew Beard 19:48

87 Philip Hogg 20:00

151 Rebecca Marshall 25:31

Regents Park 10k, 7th July 2019

90 Carl Heap    45:32  (3rd V60)

231  Marianne Gibson 54:43

Ealing Summer Mile, Ealing, 5th July 2019

16th Benjy Bediako 5:34 Club U13B Record

24th Kimberli Butler 7:07

Long Course Weekend Wales, 5th-7th July

489 participants

73 Elinor East (9th F/124):

4k sea swim 1:24

180k bike 6:33

42k Run 3:30:32

Compiled by Emilia with thanks to Sion Lewis, Lewis Hatfull, Simon Baker, Rob Shulman, Amy Spiller, Elinor East, Gavin Evans, Pete Crockford

Please send comments or corrections to lheathside@gmail.com