Bronze on the return of XC on the Heath

Heathside’s senior women secured a bronze medal at the London XC Championships, despite missing several of our top runners. The event saw cross country racing return to the Heath with Brogan Wallace taking an impressive 8th in the Women’s race and Thomas Archer securing 12th place (and 1st U20) in the senior race. Elsewhere Rob Shulman completed the 80 mile Hardwold in fine style, coming 17th overall, .and several other Heathsiders took part in road races including a tasty second place in 37:14 for Josie Hinton in a Battersea Park 10k

London Cross Country Championships

Saturday saw the return of Cross Country racing to the iconic course on Hampstead Heath after a two year break. Although the mild weather had disappeared and there was a very definite winter chill in the air, the Heath was beautifully adorned in Autumn Colour and with the ground firmer than usual it led to some hard competitive racing.

Heathside went into the race as both men’s and women’s defending champions and despite valiant efforts from all couldn't quite reach those heights but did see the women win bronze and the menjust missing out on the team medals in 4th position.

With the juniors taking part in the LYG earlier in the day churning up the course the women kicked the senior races off with a 2 lap 6,000k course. With our first two runners from the Met League opting not to run - Beth Hawling wisely saved her legs for the European XC Qualifiers in Liverpool next week - it was Brogan Wallace who anchored the team, working hard in the group chasing the leaders producing a strong kick on the home straight to overtake runners and secure 8th place. Behind her Eva Divetain ran a strong race to finish 17th with Olivia Desborough finishing strongly to cross the line five seconds later. The team was completed by Rachel Seckl who was in the club's winning team in 2015 as an U20 and is now returning to some form. Although unable to retain the London the title, the team did secure bronze medals.

The Men’s race saw over 400 runners negotiate the three-lap course. James Wooldridge was our leading runner for most of the race before Thomas Archer who will be competing in the European Trials next week passed him on the last lap to finish in 12th and win gold as the first U20. Tom Aldred, as consistent as ever, was next home with Matthew Rallinson just ahead of a pack of Heathsiders completing the scoring team in 4th place. Just a quick commendation for V70 club veteran Bob Gould who finished the race in 1 hour 6 minutes.

Well done to all and we look forward to returning to the Heath for the Nationals when I suspect the ground will be a little softer.

Senior Women (6,000m, 289 runners)

1st H Dicon (Cambridge Harriers) 22:19

8th Brogan Wallace 23:11
17th Evangelista Divetain 23:40
20th Olivia Desborough 23:45
44th Rachel Seckl 24:50
49th Shannon Sinclair 25:08
64th Julie Pickering 25:36
79th Angelica Larkin 26:08
82nd Lily Woolcock 26:14
84th Genevieve Weston 26:18
98th Eleanor Barnes 26:45
99th Sara Black 26:49
103rd Ciara Williams 27:04
107th Tanya Addison 27:19
111th Sara Garcia 27:29
139th Trudy Kearney 28:21
142nd Morven Miller 28:25
172nd Ann Woulfe 29:41
181st Jackie Wastell 30:09
188th Laura Hunt 30:31
205th Kimberli Butler 31:20
207th Jo Irwin 31:25
Team (4 to score): 1st Belgrave 58 pts, 2nd TVH 63 pts, 3rd London Heathside 89 pts

Senior Men (10,000m, 432 runners)

1 S Ghafari (Highgate) 33:57

12th Thomas Archer (U20) 35:56 (1st U20)
22nd James Wooldridge 36:37

29th Tom Aldred 37:20
39th Matthew Rallison 38:08

42nd Kieran Morris 38:27
45th James Hurrell 38:31
53rd Francesco Melloni 38:55
59th Charles Hardy 39:29
76th Andy Barnes 40:25
83rd Harry Kleiman 40:41
88th Peter Gould 40:47
93rd Christopher Gracie 40:59
106th Matthew Wheat 41:28
119th Tom Fancett 42:02
133rd Jake Spencer 42:43
137th Ben Williams 42:56
140th Adam Mitchell 42:58
149th Nicolas Arrive 43:08
153rd Oliver Negus 43:16
155th Deng Akol 43:18
160th Nic Trower 43:24
168th Mark Jefford 43:36
180th Paul Beale 44:12
193rd Martin Potter 44:27
210th Nicholas Hodges-Gibson 44:46
219th Chris Hartley 45:00
225th Ian Parry 45:09
232nd Leonard Martin 45:29
247th Daniel Haile 46:11
255th Valentin Valeanu 46:29
262nd Kwasi Agyei-Owusu 46:48
267th Lee Connor 46:57
277th Liam Hazelton 47:21
295th Tom Parker 48:02
334th Steve Crowley 50:36
338th Glen Brown 50:40
339th Enzo Bressiant 50:41
349th Matt Beard 51:13
362nd Rob Sambrooks 51:56
390th Neil Thomas 53:41
401st Marco Maserati 55:09
425th Carl Heap 1:01:58
430th Robert Gould 1:06:27

Team (4 to Score), 1st TVH 46 pts, 2nd Highgate 54 pts, 3rd Thames H&H 66 pts, 4th London Heathside 102 pts

Hardwold 80 mile Race

Rob Shulman completed the Hardwold 80 mile race on November 20th. It follows the Wolds Way from Hessle to Filey. The rolling hills of Yorkshire provided 9,500 feet of incline. It is part of the well-organised Hardmoor race series which has a host of races in the north east, and what a friendly community they are. The weather was about as good as it could have been, allowing for decent trail running conditions. Running for 8 hours under the light of the moon, (and a head torch). Rob finished in 16 hours and 12 mins coming 18th overall, 17th male and 3rd V50, out of around 100 finishers and 20 dnf. The winning man came in at 13.10 and woman 15.38. Unsurprisingly this was Rob/s PB for 80 mile course.

London Youth Games

Lots of young Heathsiders turned out for their boroughs at the London Youth Games Cross Country, which returned after a year gap. There were excellent racing conditions although the mud and rough ground in parts provided enough challenge. Best placed was U15G Izzy Watkins, who is having a fine season. She finished in 4th place, leading her club mates Millie Watkins and Hattie Munday to 2nd place for in the Borough Team Race. Kiara Corkin in 9th and Amy Kirk 14th produced great runs in a very competitive U13 Girls race won by Barnet and Districts Jorja March who has another year to run in this age group. Charlotte Beale ran to 13th place in the U11 Girls race and David Baah-Oyere 12th in the U15 Boys race.

Well done to all and a great taste of running on the Heath ahead of the Nationals next year.

London Youth Games, Parliament Hill, 20.11.21

U11 Girls (1500m, 154 runners)
1st S Smith (Havering) 5:44
13th Charlotte Beale 6:39
43rd Phoebe Willhoft-King 7:10
101st Reke Szentes 7:45

U11 Boys (1500m, 153 runners)
1st C Whiteside (Tower Hamlets) 5:27
29th Alex Kirk 6:05
72nd Arun Danes 6:13
115th Pip Young 6:51

U13 Girls (2000m, 205 runners)
1st J March (Enfield) 8:01
9th Kiara Corkin 8:26
14th Amy Kirk 8:33
43rd Lettice Gundry 9:11
94th Ivy Gray 9:43
95th Lila Bustin 9:44
101st Kitty Kelsall 9:49
118th Caitlin Roberts 10:00
169th Cecily Hayward 10:52
175th Elkie Baker 11:06

U13 Boys (2,000m, 206 runners)
1st J Scanes (Bromley) 7:13
23rd Koppany Szentes 7:54
58th Sam Turner 8:20
119th Christopher Baah-Okyere 9:06

U15 Girls (2000m 177 runners)
1st A Svlhalkova (Ken&Chel) 7:34
4th Izzy Watkins 7:44
11th Millie Watkins 8:10
18th Hattie Munday 8:18
22nd Ruby Walls 8:23
29th Mia Rosen 8:27
58th Lucy Corkin 8:49
108th Amara Odegoberin 9:27
145th Libby Judd-Hawkes 10:15

U15B (3000m 180 runners)
1st G Stubbs 10:15
12th David Baah-Okyere 11:01
65th Ivor Joslin 11:59
72nd Gregory Berrisford-Sweet 12:05
100th Alex Smith 12:32
104th Ben Ryan 12:34
169th Thomas Conley 14:48

U17 Women (3000m 96 runners)
1st N McGovern 11:13
34th Maia Hampton Phillips 13:24
38th Alice Metcalf 13:29
83rd Fabienne Weston 16:06

U17 Men (4000m 117 runners)
1st J Taylor 16:21
42nd Roni Kizilkaya 18:53
45th Janak Subberwal 18:56
31st Fred Beale 18:21
10th Bedo Draskoczy 17:36
76th Michael Smith 20:14

Other Heathside results

Run Through Olympic Park, Stratford, 20.11.21
10km(257 Runners)
1st G Ingrassia (Unattch) 36:12
4th Joe McKeown 36:50

Sri Chimnoy 10k, Battersea Park, 20.11.21 (137 Runners)
1st N Bester (Best Athletics) 31:22
52nd Joseph Clemoes 38:40
55th Phillip Hogg 39:02
61st Jack Ridings 39:38

RunThrough Battersea Park 10km 24.11.21
1st H Paton (Unattch) 31:58
23rd Josie Hinton 37:14 (2nd Female)
29th Steve Pennington (V50) 38:00
61st Joe Starkey 42:4

Park Run

Parkrun results can be found here, and there were first places for Seyfu Jamaal (Finsbury), Beth Hawling (Highbury Fields), Caroline Boyle (Mullingar) and Conor Brown (Poolbag)

Big thanks to Simon Baker for all his work with this report, and also to Rob Shulman. (Gavin Evans)