Review of 2022 - part 2

Part 2 of our Annual Review includes medals at the world Masters, Gold at the National School Championships, retention of our MYAL title and Rebecca Bunting winning Team Gold representing Great Britain at the European 50km Championships.

JULY

The Club held a very successful Finsbury Park 5000s with 167 participants.  Fastest man was James McMurray (St Albans City) and woman Kate Moulds (Vale Royal).

Adrian Essex, Adrian Day, Richard McCauley and Noelle O’Regan took part in the World Athletics Masters in Finland winning a silver in the V70 300m Hurdles.

Sion Lewis represented Wales in the Half Marathon Masters International, Sue Eedie was 2nd V60 in the 10km race.

The club had a record 11 young athletes taking part in the National Schools Championships in Manchester.  Sam Brown won Gold in the Junior Boys 300m.  Others registered 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th  places as well as setting 6 new club records.

Cian O’Donnell set new senior club records in both the 100m and 200m races.

The Club won their third SAL meeting at Woodford.

Barnet hosted their Golden Stag Mile at Finsbury Park with Brogan Wallace (4:53) and Seyfu Jamaal (4:16) both breaking the Clubs mile record.

A Senior Mens Team of Sion Lewis, Christopher Gracie and Andy Barnes finished 5th in the Battersea Park 1 Mile relays

The climax of the MYAL season at the StoneX saw the Clubs Young Athletes retain their MYAL title winning the 4th meeting to make it a clean sweep.  There were 12 event wins 2 new league bests and 3 new club records, the U15 Girls relay team set a new overall club record.

Seyfu Jamaal won the Last Friday of the Month 5k in Hyde Park

AUGUST

Rebecca Bunting was 1st woman at the Sri Chinmoy Hasty Hare 5k in Battersea with Seyfu 2nd man.

Issy Watkins won 800m gold at the south of England championships setting a new U17W club record of 2:15.2.  Sam Brown won silver in the U15B 300m.  Milli Bridgeman-Athanasdatos set a new U15G Club record in the triple jump with 9.56m.

Cian O’Donnell won 100m and 200m silver in the Scottish Championships while Brogan Wallace was 5th in the 1500m.  Cian also finished 3rd in the National League Final in Bedford representing Glasgow Jaguars.

The club’s push for SAL promotion came to an end with a weakened team only able to finish 4th in the meeting held again at Woodford.

Damien Lane finished 13th V50 at the legendary Comrades Marathon in South Africa with Rob Shulman also taking part.

At the England Athletics U15 and U17 Championships in Bedford Magdeline Paitoo made the U15G 200m final but misheard the starting gun to only finish 8th.  Other competitors included Ella Burridge, Martha Jolly and Elkie Baker.

SEPTEMBER

Seyfu Jamaal was the first non-elite runner to finish the Big Half in a time of 1:07.12, Tom Aldred was 1st V40 and Tess Walker 2nd U20W.

The Club held the second part of it’s annual championships

After paying respects to the passing of Queen Elizabeth the U15 Girls (Kirk, Rosen, Gundry) and U17W (Watkins, Munday, Walls) won their Middlesex Road Relay titles with Amy Kirk and Issy Watkins recording the fastest lap times in their age groups.

The SAL season petered out with another 4th place in the  last meeting at Perivale to finish 9th overall in Division 2E slightly lower than the 7th we attained in the last normal season in 2019.

Seyfu set a new club 5k record of 14.32 at Battersea Park.

The U17 Womens team (Munday, Walls, I Watkins) won gold in the South of England Road Relays at Crystal Palace.

The Middlesex 10km Championships in Victoria Park were won by Seyfu with Joseph Young 2nd and Roger Maidment 3rd, Amy Cook was 1st woman and Oliver O’Connor 1st U20 Man.  Both Senior Mens and Women won the Team titles. 

OCTOBER

Tom Aldred in 21st place was the 1st Heathsider home in the London Marathon with Olivia Desborough our leading woman and 39th woman overall.  In the mini marathon Issy Watkins was 4th in the U17W Borough Challenge.

Rebecca Bunting represented GB at the European 50k Championships in Spain finishing 5th overall and winning team gold.

The Cross Country season kicked off with the Met League at Claybury.  Beth Hawling won the Senior Womens race with Seyfu 2nd in the Mens.

Olivia Desborough won the North London Cross Country title at Horsenden Hills with Josie Hinton and Tom Aldred the first respective first vets home.

Gabriel Edwards ran the 5th fastest 60mH by a U13B of all time 9.64s at Lee Valley.

NOVEMBER

Seyfu won the North of the Thames Cross Country race at Fryent Park with George Gurney 3rd to ensure the senior men won the Team Title.

Brogan Wallace finished 7th in the Scottish Short Course Cross Country Championships.

The 2nd Met League race took place at Wormwood Scrubs, with Rebecca Bunting leading the Senior Women to victory.  Seyfu was again 2nd in the mens race with the mens team 4th.  The Junior Women won their race with Hattie Munday 3rd.

Brogan Wallace took silver in the London Cross Country Championships on Parliament Hill with the senior women (Wallace, Bunting, Hinton, Piggott) taking team gold.  Seyfu was 3rd in the mens race with the mens team (Jamaal, Gurney, Young, O’Flaherty) taking silver.

DECEMBER

The 3rd Met League meeting returned to Uxbridge and a relatively tame River Pinn.  The Senior Women again won their race with Rebecca Piggott first home in 4th place.  The Senior Men were 4th with Seyfu also in 4th place.  The Club head into the last two meetings leading the Howard Williams Trophy.

The Indoor Season commenced on the newly relaid track at Lee Valley with 3 new club records  Magdeline Paitoo U17W 300m, Oscar Hall U17M 300m and Imani Quamina U17W 60mH.

Malakai David McKenzie Callum broke 4 Club U15B records on his way to winning silver in the Southern Indoor Combined Athletics Championships.

Written by Simon Baker