Heathside clean up at Middlesex XC Champs

The first weekend of 2019 saw cross country return to the fore and Heathside had a brilliant day at the Middlesex Championships, our most successful in recent memory, as we came home with 5 team titles across the various age groups, while Rebecca Piggott and Jem O’Flaherty won the Senior Women and U20 Men’s individual titles. With a full rundown on how the day panned out, over to Simon Baker:

"The 2019 Championships were held again at Horsenden Hill, Greenford where the course was firm but plagued with soft sticky mud that made going tough in parts. This however was no barrier to a series of fantastic team performances with the Juniors winning all but one of the male titles and taking bronze in the other one. The Under 15 Girls also won team silver in their race. In addition to Jem O'Flaherty winning the U20 Men title, Liam Garrett (U20 Men), Thomas Archer (U15 Boys), Spike Blake (U13 Boys) all won silver and Seyfu Jamaal a Bronze. In total, 9 Junior Heathsiders qualified to represent Middlesex in the forthcoming National Inter-Counties race so congratulations to them all.

The day started with the U11 races over a truncated lap of 1500m but being slightly different from the NWLL may have caught out Benjy, who although finishing the strongest, just missed out on a medal in 4th only 4 sec behind the race winner. However the depth of the U11 team is evidenced by Eric Beale, who just recorded a new parkrun PB of 21.17 finishing 9th followed by in 10th and 11th place Ben Redland and Kamran Bakhshi in only their second races for the club. Noah Beckloff followed in 17th and debutant Joel Briars-Coen a creditable 21st. Unfortunately there is no official U11 team competitions however if there was the Boys would have won by 21 points. Elkie Baker was the only U11 Girl, running a steady race to finish 14th.

The U13's run a full lap having to negotiate an energy sapping hill halfway round which took its toll on some runners. Spike Blake led the boys team home after securing second place, with Stan Hasson (8th) and Ivor Joslin (13th) also scoring. With 3 to score the team won gold by 2 points. Gregory Berrisford-Sweet (16th) and debutant Arthur Maslen completed the team in 24th. The U13 Girls race followed soon after and the Heathside team was led home by Issy Watkins in 18th with Amara Odeogberin 31st in her first XC race of the year just passing a tiring Hattie Munday (32nd) in the finishing straight.

In the U15 Boys race 5 seconds a mere separated the first 5 runners with Thomas Archer holding on to 2nd place. Ruairi McGonagle followed in 7th place and Bedo Draskoczy 10th. The next home was Oliver O'Conner 14th, Sam Ingram 22nd with the final 3 Lucas Maher (31st), Kit Naylor (34th) and Raymond Edwin (35th) all finishing in under 17 minutes to secure the team Gold ahead of Hillingdon. The U15 Girls are currently sitting 1st and 3rd in the XC leagues so a strong performance could be expected and they delivered led home by Rose Garrett (who has run all the races this year) finishing 6th followed by Mia Manttan (12th) and Nell Swinhoe (14th) to take the team silver medal. Mathilda Heath (23rd), Ella O'Flaherty (38th) and Fabienne Weston (45th) completing the Heathside runners.

The U17 and U20 races were combined this year. The first U17 Heathsider was Lemi Mideska (6th) with Jake Evans (11th) and Sid Diamond (21st) ensuring the team secured a bronze medal. In the U20 Men the Heathside team convincingly won the title with a magnificent 1-2-3 as Jem O'Flaherty, last years U17 Champion, finished 1st, followed by Liam Garrett and Seyfu Jamaal.  Also making his first appearance this year was Antanas Weston (13th). For the U17 Women Mimi Blake, who has also run every race this season, finished 7th securing a place in the Middlesex team.

This race also acted as a Club Championship for the U20 Men so congratulations to Jem on also being the Club U20 XC Champion for 2019. Zac runs the championship races and details can be found at www.cgsystems.co.uk/heathside_champs/index.htm.

Later on there was even more success as our senior women dominated their 8km race, placing an incredible four runners in the top 10 to comfortably retain the county title for Heathside. Rebecca Piggott won by four seconds to win the race outright, with Josie Hinton in 4th after a neck-and-neck sprint, newcomer Juli Bijl in 8th and Annabel Litchfield completing the scoring team in 10th.

A good turnout from our senior men helped them win the 12-to-score competition for those teams outside the top three. In the main 5-to-score competition they came in a solid 5th out of 10, with Tom Aldred highest placed in 12th. Charles Hardy, Pete Northall, Andy Barnes and Francesco Melloni completed the scoring team. A whopping 28 men ran in total, making up over 15% of the whole field.

The club now have 4 Trophies to add to their collection. Of particular significance was the U15 title which the club last won in 1981, the trophy for which is the Hornsey Cup which was donated and first awarded in 1963 by John Sullivan who was a coach at the club from the 1960's until retiring in the 2000's and Ivor Wiggett, long time race starter and who is still a committee member at the club and was there supporting the club on Saturday.

The races continue thick and fast with the next and penultimate Met League fixture on coming up this weekend on Saturday 12th at Wormwood Scrubs. This is the last race before the Southern XC Championships on Parliament Hill on 26th. All runners count in the Met League with the club currently sitting 3rd overall in the Senior Howard Trophy and the Juniors a close 4th."

Non cross country action was a little thin on the ground, but there were still a couple of races to note.

Victoria Park Half Marathon, Saturday 5th January

Three Heathsiders took on the fast course at Victoria Park, Jonathan Shipley getting his year off to a great start by finishing in a PB time of 1:21:56, just behind Thomas Foy (1:20:01) and just ahead of Laurie Swan (1:23:47).

Mornington Chasers 10k Winter Series, Regent’s Park, Sunday 6th January

A scan through the results suggests that Louisa Pointon was the sole Heathsider at this one, posting a solid time time of 42:37 and should have ended up with a prize as 3rd female.

Parkruns

A fair few second places knocking around this week at various parkruns but only two first finishers: Melvin Lewis at Pymmes; and Lily Woolcock at Ally Pally. As ever, full results here.

Full week's results:

Middlesex Cross Country Championships, Horsendon Hill, Saturday 5th Jan

Senior Men (175 runners) 12000m

12th Tom Aldred 40:19
22nd Charles Hardy 41:38
29th Pete Northall 42:29
41st Andy Barnes 43:49
47th Francesco Melloni 44:05
49th Joseph McKeown 44:14
51st Alex Sweet 44:39
57th Peter Gould 45:23
61st Martin Potter 45:44
62nd Scarlett Parker 45:56
70th Matthew Cockerill 46:45
75th Danny O'Reilly 46:58
81st Tom Kencroft 47:48
82nd Gavin Evans 47:52
88th Mark Jefford 48:28
91st Nick O'Hora 48:35
93rd Paul Mercer 48:43
95th Matt Collins 48:53
104th Rajiv Ratan 49:50
109th Anthony Leonard 50:10
111st Tom Bedwell 50:17
114th Andy Owen 50:28
119th Jonathan Lichfield 50:44
125th Francois Barou 51:53
131st Mark George 52:52
144th Richard Peachment 54:37
161st Marco Maserati 58:21
167th Tim Sander 60:23  

5th London Heathside 200 pts

12 to score (1st team outside top 3) - London Heathside  

Senior Women  (107 runners) 8000m   

1st Rebecca Piggott 30:18
4th Josie Hinton 30:40
8th Julia Bijl 31:35
10th Annabel Litchfield 32:14
18th Sue Rust 33:51
22nd Emma Watson 34:06
28th Sarah Swinhoe 35:11
29th Tara Shrestha Carney 35:13
33rd Tatyana Potiyenko 35:31
44th Jackie Wastell 36:59
45th Angela Howe 37:07
51st Alysia Sawicka 37:40
61st Elizabeth Beard 38:50
84th Kimberli Butler 41:24 

1st London Heathside 23 pts (4 to score)  

U11 Boy (37 runners) 1500m

4th Benjy Bediako 7:12
9th Eric Beale 7:25
10th Ben Redland 7:30
11th Kamran Bakhshi 7:33
17th Noah Beckloff 7:51
21st Joel Briars-Coen 7:58

1st London Heathside 23 pts (3 to score) - Unofficial

U11 Girl (25 runners) 1500m

14th Elkie Baker 8:40

U13 Boys (44 runners) 3000m

2nd Spike Blake 10:48
8th Stan Hasson 11:37
13th Ivor Joslin 11:51
16th Gregory Berrisford-Sweet 12:01
24th Arthur Maslen 12:25

1st London Heathside 23 pts

U13 Girls (48 runners) 3000m

18th Issy Watkins 13:25
31st Amara Odeogberin 14:09
32nd Hattie Munday 14:14

7th London Heathside 81 pts

U15 Boys (53rd runners) 4000m

2nd Thomas Archer 13:43
7th Ruairi McGonagle 14:16
10th Bedo Draskoczy 14:47
14th Oliver O'Connor 15:08
22nd Sam Ingram 15:59
31st Lucas Maher 16:29
34th Kit Naylor 16:31
35th Raymond Edwin 16:50

1st London Heathside 19 pts

U15 Girls (45 runners) 4000m

6th Rose Garrett 15:48
12th Mia Manttan 16:40
14th Nell Swinhoe 16:46
23rd Mathilda Heath 17:34
38th Ella O'Flaherty 19:17
45th Fabienne Weston 20:46

2nd London Heathside 32 pts

U17 Men (31 runners) 6000m

6th Lemi Mideska 20:36
11th Jake Evans 21:41
21st Sidney Diamond 23:02

3rd London Heathside 38 pts

U17 Women (23 runners) 6000m

7th Mimi Blake 24:47

U20 Men (13 runners) 6000m

1st Jem O'Flaherty 19:10
2nd Liam Garrett 19:21
3rd Sefyu Jamaal 19:22
13th Antanas Weston 22:58

1st London Heathside 6 pts

RunThrough Victoria Park Half Marathon, Saturday 5th January

11th Thomas Foy 1:20:01
19th Jonathan Shipley 1:21:51
28th Laurie Swan 1:23:47

Mornington Chasers 10k Winter Series, Sunday 6th January

49th Louisa Pointon 42:37

Thanks to Jonathan, Jerry and Sue for emailing in and particularly Simon for his mammoth XC round-up and sorting the results out. Report this week by Gareth, any errors or omissions, drop us a line at lheathside@gmail.com