A Silver medal and a 4th place at the Southern XC Champs

South of England AA Championships, Parliament Hill,  26/01/19

This weeks report is dominated by the Southern XC championships. The highlights were a silver medal for the Men’s U20 team, the best position since 1975 ! and  a 4th place near miss on the medals from the Senior Women, both great achievements especially when set in the historical context

Combined reports below from Sue Rust ( re seniors ) & Simon Baker ( juniors )

“The Southern Cross Country Championships returned to Parliament Hill on a chilly overcast day with occasional rain showers failing to dampen the enthusiasm of the 3,680 taking part of which 81 were Heathsiders.  Highlights were the U20 Men's silver medal and Senior Women's 4th Place.

 The Heath, which had been relatively firm under foot, was softened by the snow and rain earlier in the week to ensure it would provide a stern challenge especially for the Senior men who have 15,000m to negotiate.  This combined with the uphill start and large fields of runners provide their own unique challenge.

The U20 mens win silver, senior women superb.  Our Juniors brought the club its best success on the day with a stunning 2nd place in the U20 Mens race.  Seyfu Jamaal has been in great form all this season and produced again crossing the line in 6th place with Jem O'Flaherty hard on his heels only 2 sec behind in 7th.  Liam Garrett was next home in 13th and then a nervous wait until William Griffiths crossed the finishing line in 95th to ensure the team secured their silver medal behind Reading AC. The last time we had medals in the U20s was in 1975, when our chairman Jerry, Pete Holland, and others won gold.  

 U20 Men - 8000m - 116 runners

1st L Wellington (City of Portsmouth) 25:12

6th Seyfu Jamaal 25:52

7th Jem O'Flaherty 25:54

13th Liam Garrett 26:32

95th William Griffiths 30:18

1st Reading AC 69 pts, 2nd London Heathside 121 pts🥈

After the U20 men’s silver, the next best team result of the day came courtesy of our senior women, who came fourth. With the quality female runners we have in the club at the moment, a medal was not an unrealistic prospect.  The fourth place finish clearly shows it wasn’t, even though we didn’t quite make the podium. Still, our top scoring ladies didn’t disappoint as they steamed their way to what we’re declaring our best result ever for the women. Truly an outcome to be proud of.

Rebecca got the points scoring underway with a 26th-placed finish, with Josie following closely in 29th. Julia Bijl was back in action for Heathside after making her debut as part of the Middlesex Champs-winning team earlier this month, crossing the line in 38th to claim the third scoring spot. Our fourth scorer, in 64th, was Catrin, who was also back in action, albeit in her case after having played an important part in our dominant display at the Wormwood Scrubs Met League in her first cross-country appearance for the club. In total we had six in the top 100, with Celine and Olivia – regular Met League A-teamers – finishing four seconds within each other and not far behind Catrin. All told, we had 27 senior women race the 8k, including a lovely mix of newer faces (Chloe, Amber, for example) and XC veterans (Jackie, Fiona), plus some established Heathsiders who hadn’t yet made it to a championship or Met League this year.

Senior Women - 8000m - 703 runners

1st P Woolven (Wycombe Phoenix Harriers) 26:53

26th Rebecca Piggott 30:20

29th Josie Hinton 30:26

38th Julia Bijl 31:04

64th Catrin Tyler 32:07

68th Celine Murray 32:13

70th Olivia Desborough 32:17

124th Ula Cartwright-Finch 33:55

126th Emma Watson 33:38

140th Sue Rust 33:56

144th Angelica Datta 34:03

187th Tara Shrestha-Carney 35:11

193rd Emily Reichert 35:18

215th Satu Hietanen 35:50

223rd Tatyana Potiyenko 36:10

252nd Louisa Pointon 36:36

285th Jackie Wastell 37:19

302nd Amber Fahey 37:40  

339th Chloe Bean 38:24

340th Elizabeth Beard 38:25

353rd Cathy Jeremiah 38:45

359th Alice Hosking 38:48

385th Lucy Stanfield 39:17

431st Sarah Duke 40:19

437th Caroline White 40:28

534th Kimberli Butler 43:14

553rd Rebecca Marshall 43:40

560th Fiona Holland 43:53

1st Thames Hare & Hounds 86 pts, 4th London Heathside 157 pts

Our senior men’s team scored a very respectable 13th, two places higher than last year. That looks to be the best team result since 2013, when we also finished 13th – although the field then was half the size it was this year. Tom Aldred completed the gruelling 15km course in 49:43, with the rest of the scoring team made up of some of the familiar Met League A-team faces: Charles Hardy, Pete Northall, Francesco Melloni, Simon Dunderdale and Thomas Stottor. As usual, the men had to contend with the course at its most churned-up of the day, although luckily the heavens didn’t open until after (?) they had completed the three laps. Highgate Harriers and Victoria Park & Tower Hamlets, who are ahead of Heathside in the Met League in first and second currently, finished 5th and 9th in the Southerns (but they didn’t have any medalling U20 men’s teams).

Senior Men - 15000m - 1154 Runners

1st H Pearce (Tonbridge) 45:53

55th Tom Aldred 49:43

125th Charles Hardy 52:17

133rd Pete Northall 52:17

178th Francesco Melloni 53:38

221st Simon Dunderdale 54:49

252nd Thomas Stottor 55:38

265th Peter Gould 55:46

268th Sion Lewis 55:48

275th Joseph McKeown 55:54

364th Scarlett Parker 57:36

375th Alex Sweet 57:51

383rd Steve Armstrong 58:02

396th Joseph Clemoes 58:22

398th Chris Holmes 58:23

418th Martin Potter 58:39

544th Rajiv Ratan 1:00:51

559th Matt Collins 1:01:02

591st Nick Ohora 1:01:32

592nd Leonard Martin 1:01:33

603rd Gavin Evans 1:01:42

626th Tony Sheared 1:02:10

650th Chris Vincent 1:02:31

750th Andrew Owen 1:04:25

772nd Tom Bedwell 1:04:42

776th Thomas Davis 1:04:47

1048th Daniel Wrapson 1:13:24

1st Aldershot Farnham & District AC 105 pts, 13th London Heathside 964 pts

Junior Races

Our other junior teams were unable to reach the heights of the Middlesex Championships largely due to missing key personnel or due to many still feeling the effects of the Middlesex Schools XC Championships the last Thursday over a challenging course at Harrow.  The club had a total of 16 runners representing the Boroughs of Haringey and Barnet in this race with places to represent Middlesex at the National School Championships in March at stake. 

Back to the Southerns. In the U20 women Lily McKay finished 54th in her first race of the season. In the U17 men Lemi Mideska secured a top 50 finish with 42nd place, Stan Brown running his third race of the season finished in 217th. On the U17 women's side Mimi Blake, who has only missed one race this season for the club, crossed the line in 41st also secured a top 50 finish, and in her first race this season Evelyn Dumbleton finished 71st, a major improvement on her 123rd last year in Brighton. 

We managed full teams in both U15 races.  However the boys team were missing Thomas Archer who recently finished 2nd in the Essex School XC Championships.  The rest of the team had also competed on Thursday and was led home by Bedo Draskoczy in 56th.  Jack Davis-Black crossed the line a minute later in 131st with Lucas Maher 212nd and Sam Ingram 230th completing the scorers to secure 23rd place in the team competition.  Kit Naylor and Raymond Edwin both produced solid runs to complete the Heathside contingent.  The U15 Girls were, as they have all season, led home by Rose Garrett in 78th with Mia Manttan 128th, Lorna Dumbleton, also in her first race this season, 193rd and the last scoring team member Ella O'Flaherty 197th securing the team 25th place overall.   Following them Edie Friedlander (221st) and Fabienne Weston (287th) ran committed races over the two lap course.

Like the U15s the U13 Boys were missing Spike Blake our strongest runner.  However the team packed well together with our first three runners all finishing within 12 seconds in the middle of the field.  Ivor Joslin was first Heathsider piping Stan Hasson by 7 seconds in 140th and 151st places. Gregory Berrisford-Sweet in 165th was only 5 seconds further back. The Girls race saw Hattie Munday continue her return to form after finishing 7th in the Middlesex Schools by finishing 87th here.  Issy Fornasari-Watkins was next 13 seconds later in 113th with the scoring completed by her sister Milly in 175th and Amara Odeogberin 270th leaving the team 31st.  This was the first Southern Championships for all 4 girls who will have certainly benefitted from the experience and will only be stronger next year.  “

U20 Women - 6000m - 69 runners

1st A Quirk (Bracknell AC) 23:15

54th Lily McKay 30:15

U17 Men - 6000m - 230 runners

1st D Stone (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers) 21:12

42nd Lemi Mideska 23:13

217th Stan Brown   28:34

U17 Women - 5000m - 176 runners

1st T Wilson (Bedford & County) 18:46

41st Mimi Blake 21:04

71st Evelyn Dumbleton 22:09

U15 Boys - 4500m - 295 runners

1st L Small (Ashford AC) 14:59

56th Bedo Draskoczy 16:36

131st Jack Davis-Black 17:30

212nd Lucas Maher 18:48

230th Sam Ingram 19:09

235th Kit Naylor 19:18

278th Raymond Edwin 20:49

1st Aldershot Farnham & District AC 27 pts, 23rd London Heathside 620 pts

U15 Girls - 4000m - 291 runners

1st B Wood (City of Salisbury) 15:52

78th Rose Garrett 18:14

128th Mia Manttan 19:11

193rd Lorna Dumbleton 20:13

197th Ella O'Flaherty 20:22

221st Edie Friedlander 20:51

287th Fabienne Weston 23:36

1st Chiltern Harriers 65 pts, 25th London Heathside 596 pts

U13 Boys - 3000m - 330 runners

1st B Peck (Thetford) 11:04

140th Ivor Joslin 13:01

151st Stan Hasson 13:08

165th Gregory Berrisford-Sweet 13:13

U13 Girls - 3000m - 316 runners

1st R Vinton (Ipswich Harriers) 12:06

87th Hattie Munday 13:50

113th Issy Fornasari Watkins 14:03

175th Milly Fornasari Watkins 14:43

270th Amara Odeogberin 16:12

1st Tonbridge 31pts, 31st London Heathside 645 pts

Away from the Southerns, there were a few indoor track performances at the weekend. Simon Baker reports on some  PB’s and more club records of the Indoor variety

London Indoor Games - Lee Valley, 26-27  Jan

“Some more strong recordbreaking performances by Heathsiders at The London Indoor Games with Pete Crockford breaking the V60 800m record.  Eleanor Bell registered her first Athletics performance since 2012. However the outstanding performances were Deji Agbede setting a new senior club indoor 400m record by over 0.5 sec beating Joe Silva’s 2012 mark.  Rosa Serafini also improved her recently set 800m record by over 2 sec.”

60m Sen Women - Eleanor Bell 8.24 and 8.26 sec
200m Sen Men - Michael Bense (V45) 27.55
400m Sen Men – Michael Bense (V45) 61.46
400m U20 Men - Deji Agbede 52.80 PB                       New club U20 & senior record
800m Sen Men - Pete Crockford (V60) 2:35.88 PB       New club age record
800m Sen Women - Rosa Serafini 2:14.96 PB             New club record          
Pole Vault Sen Women - Gokce Baydor (V35) 2:61

Park Runs

Despite the focus on cross country, there was still large Heathside presence at 15 different Parkruns.

Highlight performances from Rebecca Bunting 1st at Ally Pally in 18.51 ( and 2nd overall ), 2nd places for Melvin Lewis at Grovelands ( 19.00 ) & James Gibson at Highbury Fields (18.15), 3rd for Ed Samuel (Oak Hill) and Benjy Bediako ( Pymmes ), & 18.29  for Liam Tollington at Finsbury Park

Scarlett Parker sends this report on his son’s first parkrun and fine perfromance 

“My son (Tynan Parker, U13) didn't do the Southerns due to joining the club after the entry deadline, so instead did his first parkrun at Hove Prom as a Heathsider. He knocked 23s off his previous New Year's Day pb, finishing 20th in 19:23. Kabir's training taking effect. Proud dad, etc.”

 The list of Parkrun results can be found here

 http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=2017    

Compiled by Mark George, with thanks to the reporting from Sue Rust, Simon Baker, & Scarlett Parker