Chilly, hilly at Ally Pally! Heathside stun at Royston
In the Met League (results still "provisional" at time of writing), the Junior Men (U17/U15) were 1st placed on the day (7th for the season), Ruairi McGonagle won the U13 Boys event; the Senior Women A's finished 2nd on the day and 2nd overall in Division 1, whilst the B's look like having to face the drop back to Div.2. However, the Women C's finished as the League's highest placed C team at 4th in Div.2. The Women Vet A's were 2nd on the day and finished 2nd in Div.1, the Vet B's finished 7th in Div.1 and are the League's highest placed B team. The Vet C's ended as 2nd in Div.2 and can lookm forward to promotion to Div.1, which will mean Heathside will be the only club to have THREE teams in the Women Vets' Division 1!
The Senior Men A's were 3rd on the day, and 4th overall in Div.1. The B's ended up 10th and face next season in Div.2; the C's finish 4th overall in Div.2; The Men Vets A's took 1st place on the day and finished 3rd overall in Div.1, with the B's a very respectable 6th; The C's finished 2nd overall in Div.2 and win promotion to Div.1 - which, as with the Women, will mean Heathside will be the only club to have THREE teams in the Men Vets' Division 1!
In the Sunday League, the Women's A and B teams both finished a sterling 2nd in their respective groupings.
So another XC season draws to a close, a big thank you to the team captains. I'll include Jake Spencer's words (as posted on Facebook): "...I would just like to say thank you to everyone who took part in the Met League and XC in general this season, be it running, supporting or marshalling, I salute you all! It has been a fantastic season and a well fought battle and I am so proud not only to be running for Heathside but to also be your captain! You should all be very proud of your achievements, we might not of come away with all we wanted but we fought a good fight and we never gave up. Next season we will come back even stronger and tougher, we will climb those tables! For those of you running the Nationals I will see you on the the battle field one last time this season for the others watch this space next season, things are about to get real! A very grateful and proud captain!"
A big thanks too to Laura Boothman for her sterling efforts in pushing the Sunday League events, especially taking the time and trouble to print a handy Season XC guide, and provide us with Sunday morning train times and other travel info., not to mention the occasional round of cakes... She sums up the season thus: "It’s been a tough season with precipitation and scheduling adding to the usual delight of mud and hills. HUGE thank you to all 65 wonderful people who took part. Yes, we fielded huge teams at Cheshunt and Grovelands, and yes - we somehow fought round Willian after the Christmas party, and yes - we got drenched in Watford rain, and yes - we took on the Royston Rollercoaster in the snow! Red stars for those competing in all five Sunday League races go to: Bas Vlaming; Emilia Vynnycky; Jakub Kozel; Jonathan Litchfield; Katerina Kozlova; Kim Butler; Jessica Vinluan & Laura Boothman. Wash those spikes til they're sparkly...and hope to see you in October when will start all over again!"
Elsewhere, Dan McKeown "rolled in a fairly distant 3rd" (his words!) in the Greenwich Winter Series 10km, a great result following his all-out efforts at Ally Pally the previous day; Peter Ward took part in the 2nd Worthing Half, and writes: "A cold day, a flat but fast course - I believe I 'negative split' this distance, which is a first for me! Windy headwind for the last three miles added to the spice... This is a good race with strong PB potential as it's pancake flat, I will be back next year." (photos of Peter in the race, bib 1509, can be viewed here). Andrew Brooker was in the 26.2 Road runners' Club Valentine's 10km, round the roads of Chessington and Epsom & Ewell, where he was just pipped into 3rd spot by a hairsbreadth. Henry Hamilton-Gould ran in the Love Welwyn Garden City 10km, which, per the event website, is a "race run on the closest Sunday to Valentines Day with the hope that entrants will 'Fall In Love With Running' ".
RESULTS
26.2 RRC Valentine Day's 10km (Chessington)
3 Andrew Brooker 33:20
430 finishers
Worthing Half
151 Peter Ward 1:32:27
1620 finishers
Love Welwyn Garden City 10km
27th Henry Hamilton-Gould 41:56
326 finishers
Greenwich Park Winter Series 10km
3 Daniel Mckeown 37:41
225 finishers
CROSS-COUNTRY "DIRTY DOUBLE" WEEKEND FIXTURES
METROPOLITAN LEAGUE #5 (Alexandra Palace)
U11 Girls (Team: 8th on the day, 8th overall final league position)
9 HattieMunday 7:34
U11 Boys (Team: 8th otd, 12th overall)
12 ? 7:00
14 Max Deasy 7:04
17 ? 7:15
29 ? 7:32
47 ? 7:53
65 ? 8:35
U13 Boys (Team: 3rd otd, 6th overall)
1 Ruairi McGonagle 12:47
13 Oliver O'Connor 13:52
33 Lucas Maher 15:12
U13 Girls (Team: A: 3rd otd, 4th overall; B: 17th otd, 22nd overall)
3 Nel Swinhoe 14:09
11 Rose Garrett 14:50
18 Matilda Heath 15:36
42 Zuzanna Stachara 19:47
43 Fabienne Weston 19:58
Junior Men U15/U17 (Team: 1st otd, 7th overall)
3 Jem O'Flaherty 14:57 (1st U15)
5 Liam Garrett 15:09
22 Jake Evans 16:58 (14th U15)
27 Antanas Weston 17:20
Junior Women U17/U15 (Team: 10th otd, 13th overall)
20 Martina Curcia 20:16 (11th U15)
22 Ella Conlon 20:36 (13th U15)
Senior Women
5 Ella Waldman 21:30
8 Kelly Thorneycroft 21:57
15 Sarah Swinhoe 22:55 (1st V45)
22 Rosa Serafini 23:38
28 Ula Cartwright-Finch 23:54
35 Satu Hietanen 24:20
36 Emma Ford 24:21
39 Colette Monahan 24:29
50 Jennifer Wing 25:16
52 Alice Hosking 25:21
74 Hannah Stanforth 26:11
80 Jackie Wastell 26:33 (1st V55)
97 Catherine Doherty 27:32
100 Louise Le Ray 27:37
104 Edyta Szot 27:58
107 Kim Butler 28:10
110 Natalie Shoham 28:24
112 Ruth Miller 28:29
116 Emilia Vynnycky 28:55
126 Tammela Platt 29:58
138 Nicola McBride 30:47
143 Laura Boothman 31:28
144 Ann Woulfe 31:33
146 Marianne Gibson 31:42
160 Alison Harrow 34:14
Team Results: A: 2nd otd, 2nd overall B: 7th otd, 9th overall - in Div1; C: 2nd otd, 3rd overall - Div3;
Vets: A 2nd otd, 2nd overall - in Div1 B: 8th otd, 7th overall C: 3rd otd, 2nd overall - Div2
Senior Men
5 Tom Aldred 27:24
19 Olivier Le Polain 28:26
43 Richard Macaulay 29:56
54 Dan McKeown 30:29
57 Peter Northall 30:34
63 Simon Dunderdale 30:55
68 Tom Livermore 31:19
69 Simon Brown 31:21
70 Mario Cadete 31:23
78 Andy Barnes 31:34
79 Mark Anderson 31:39
88 Paul Mercer 31:50
89 Pete Bakewell 31:50
93 Dan Madams 32:00
95 Joe Garrood 32:02
101 Jonathan Litchfield 32:06
105 John Driscoll 32:13
118 Chris Hartley 32:33
121 Gareth Marshall 32:44
131 Edward Adams 33:04
134 Edward Garrett 33:08
135 Andy Welshman 33:10
138 Adam Mitchell 33:20
143 David Fallon 33:30
146 Matt Collins 33:31
147 Francois Barou 33:33
148 Jake Spencer 33:35
157 Lee Connor 33:57
161 Sam Thompson 34:07
162 Marco Luna 34:08
163 Phil Hogg 34:09
165 Rajiv Ratan 34:12
166 Dominic Jackson 34:13
169 Michael Cockings 34:24
170 Jonathan Hopkin 34:25
172 Nick Haward 34:31
194 Doug Rendle 35:10
200 Paul Beale 35:15
203 Tom Haworth 35:21
207 Alex Sweet 35:34
209 Trevor Wilson 35:38
214 Laurence Arnold 35:51
216 Matt Fassnidge 35:59
232 Pete Crockford 36:32
241 David Hallam 37:19
252 Ian Shurmer 37:43
258 Shaan Haque 38:05
260 Chris Shipley 38:07
278 Roger Wagland 38:46
292 Gavin Evans 39:36
298 Marco Maserati 40:13
317 Ben Montilla 41:35
339 Dances Wrapson 44:00
345 Ken Townson 45:12
350 Dave Walton 46:31
Team Results: A: 3rd otd, 4th overall - Div1; B: 9th otd, 10th overall - Div1; C: 4th otd, 7th overall - Div1
Vets A: 1st otd, 3rd overall - Div1; B: 6th otd, 6th overall - Div1; C: 2nd otd, 2nd overall - Div2
Full Met League individual and team results and final placings can be found here (NB. still showing as "provisional" at time of posting)
SUNDAY LEAGUE #5 (Royston)
Senior Women
22 Katerina Kozlova 49:05
26 Nicola McBride 50:41
36 Noelle O'Regan 51:42
38 Jessica Vinluan 51:44
48 Kim Butler 53:31
80 Laura Boothman 59:04
83 Emilia Vynnycky 60:45
91 Rachel Scott Halls 62:44
Teams: A's - 2nd out of 19, B's - 2nd of 8, Vets/Masters - 6th of 18
Senior Men
4 Richard Macaulay 35:47
24 Joe McKeown 38:15
27 Jonathan Litchfield 38:42
43 Dave Browne 40:23
89 Jakub Kozel 44:25
94 Tim Marshall 45:20
120 Nick De Sausmarez 47:48
126 Tom Bedwell 48:23
133 Bas Vlaming 48:50
142 Arron Sparks 50:18
154 Barry Fitzgerald 52:40
163 Ken Townson 56:19
Teams: A's - 7th of 19, B's - 6th of 8, Vets/Masters - 7th of 19
Full Sunday League individual and team results and final placings can be found here
PARKRUN: As well as the usual London events, Tony Shearer was up in York, Robert Watts in Market Harborough, Mark George in Stretford, Manchester. Further afield, Tony Killilea was in Copenhagen at the Amager Strandpark PR; Mark Jefford was in Durban, South Africa, at the Umhlanga PR, and Ursula Wilson continues to fly the Heathside flag Down Under in Orange NSW where she bagged 1st Female. Full Parkrun results for Saturday 11th February: here