Heathside races into the New Year

The New Year’s Eve revelries seemed to have little impact on the obsessive mania of Heathsiders, not for just running, but for competing too. Aside from the 84 of us who took part in Parkruns, eleven more raced the Serpentine New Year 10k and five took part in the Lee Valley New Year Open - 100 in all. Not bad for a Tuesday morning. 

Rebecca Piggott was the second woman at the Serpentine and her bloke Kimon Doulis was the first Heathsider in 13th place in a new PB time. Gregory Berrisford-Sweet (U13) was second in the 3k event, sharing the same time as Benjy Bediako (U11). Gregory’s dad, Alex Sweet, was the second Heathsider in the 10k event, also in a PB time.

At the Lee Valley Open Helene Kehoe broke her own V45 club shotput record and there were also PBs for Andrew Brooker and Pete Crockford in the 800m.

Serpentine New Year 10k and 3k, Tuesday January 1

Our golden couple, distance running branch (also known as Posh and Becks), have returned from long injuries in fine style. Rebecca Piggott was just 15 seconds off her PB to take second place in 37-minutes, while Kimon Doulis came 13th in a PB time of 34:01.  The next Heathsider, in 22nd place, was Alex Sweet in a big PB time of 35:01.  Our third member home was our cross-country captain Jake Spencer, who is also returning from injury, in a PB time of 36:18. Heathside took third place in the team competition (three to score).

The 3k event saw Alex’s older son, Gregory Berrisford-Sweet (U13), taking second place in a sprint to the line with his U11 team mate Benji Bediako. Gregory edged it but both were given the same time of 11:22 – and they were both first in their age groups (the lad who beat them was a U15).

Lee Valley New Year Open Meeting - Tuesday January 1 2019

A fistful of Heathsiders made a big New Year’s day effort to compete in the open meeting at Lee Valley and returned with one club record and three PBs. Highlights include Helene Mary Kehoe breaking her V45 club record in the shot put by 2.12m (throwing 6.89m) and Andrew Brooker and Pete Crockford both registering PBs but just missing out on club records in the 800m. Drew’s time was 2:00.38 (just 0.65 seconds outside the club record) and Pete’s was 2:37.91 (1.1 second outside Bill Birmingham’s V60 record).

Simon Baker added in his report: ‘For anyone looking for indoor athletic competition over the winter the Lee Valley track is holding a full schedule with the London Indoor Games (26-27th Jan), Falola Dream Mile & 3km Open (30th Jan), Indoor Middle Distance Open (20th Feb) and March Open for U13/U15 (2nd and 24th March), U13/U15 Pentathlon (24th March) as well as the Middlesex Indoor Championships (16th-17th March).  Entry details can be found on www.visitleevalley.org.uk and www.middlesexaa.org.uk.’

Parkruns

It was a busy Parkrun week with two events in three days. On Sunday December 29th 63 of our runners took part in a record of 37 runs. There were first places for Tom Aldred in Bushy (17:10), Julia Bijl in Worcester Pitchcroft (18:40), Fiona Lennon in Queens Doman (21:27) and our former cross-country captain Cathy Jeremiah in Jells (no time listed).The consolidated club results can be found here.  

Then on New Year’s day 83 of our members took part in 25 Parkruns. The performance of the day award goes to the Garett siblings (both juniors), Liam and Rose. They won in Oak Hill (16:17 for Liam; 19:50 for Rose) and, on the same morning, came second in Grovelands  (another 16:17 for Liam and 19:32 for Rose). Also highly impressive was Rebecca Bunting’s course PB of 18:20 at Ally Pally – she was third overall (out of 270) and the first of 23 Heathsiders, beating all of our men by a good margin. The fastest Heathsider of the day was, unsurprisingly, Seyfu Jamaal (also a junior) who finished well ahead of the rest in 15:59 in Highbury Fields. Our Olivia Desborough was the first woman in the same race in 18:56. The New Year’s consolidated Heathside results can be found here.

Results

Serpentine New Year 10k and 3k, Tuesday January 1

10km (473 runners)

13th Kimon Doulis 34:01 PB

22nd Alex Sweet 35:10 PB

35th Jake Spencer 36:18 PB

42nd (2nd Female) Rebecca Piggott 37:00

85th Chris Vincent 40:08

209th Anthony Chin 47:53

212nd (53rd) Raj Gidda 48:04

243rd (64th) Rebecca Sweet 50:04

Team

Men

3rd London Heathside 1:45:39

Women

6th London Heathside 2:15:59

3km (65 runners)

2nd Gregory Berrisford-Sweet (U13) 11:22

3rd Benjy Bediako (U11) 11:22

Lee Valley New Year Open Meeting - Tuesday January 1 2019

60m
Rufus Tansey (U17) 7.60/7.65 sec
Helene Kehoe (V50) 9.75/9.55 sec

200m
Lanee Boatent (U17) 30.00 sec

800m
Andrew Brooker 2:00.38 PB
Pete Crockford (V60) 2:37.91 PB

Shot Put 
Helene Kehoe (V50) 6.89m PB

Report by Gavin Evans with big thanks to Simon Baker.