Heathside scrub up well

The Met league at the Scrubs on Saturday was the big event of the weekend for most Heathsiders. But it was by no means the only racing to take place. Met League and other results are here, the Sunday League results and report will follow separately later in the week.

Met League 4: Wormwood Scrubs
Captain Sarah Swinhoe wrote this report: Last Saturday was a perfect day for XC and what better place to spend an afternoon than at the Scrubs? This legendary venue is renowned for its lack of hills, somewhat boring course and brutal wind. Uncharacteristically, there was an absence of wind but this was replaced by some hearty insults from the inmates at HMP Wormwood Scrubs as the runners passed by. Terrifying.

You will all know that this was a big fixture for London Heathside: the women leading Div 1, Div 2 and the Vets and the men needing to fight off relegation (not the mighty men’s Veterans, though) It was one of those days that will be long- remembered: amazing atmosphere, some great team and individual performances and a mighty fine tea room, courtesy of TVH, who really do know how to host the perfect XC fixture. Both the senior and the junior teams should be proud of their contributions to the London Heathside effort and   there was much to celebrate. More of that to follow.....

Junior Races

U11 Girls
Hattie Munday goes from strength to strength and has had an amazing season. She didn’t disappoint and came home in 3rd place, just missing out on 2nd. Her determined gutsy performance set the bar high for the rest of us to follow. It is runners like Hattie that should fill us with confidence for the future of the club.

U13 Boys
The U13 boys are lying in 4th place and Spike Blake’s efforts have been a big factor in securing the position. He came home in 5th place, followed by Stan Hassan in 15th. Arthur Reed also put in strong runs in a competitive field.

U13 Girls
The U13 Girl’s team was lacking in depth but both Ella O’Flaherty and Fabienne Weston should be mentioned for their effort and committed performances.

Junior Men (U15/17)
The junior men were missing a number of their key runners at this fixture but nonetheless there were some superb runs. Jake Evans was first home for LHS in 8th place, followed by Oliver O’Connor (who had a very good race) in 23rd, Stan brown 30th and Kit Naylor in 45th.

Junior Women (U15/17)
The U15 team are having an excellent season and are still lying in 2nd place. What is impressive is the regular turn-out of a full team by the girls. Rose Garrett was first back for Heathside in 3rd place, battling it out amongst the Shaftesbury Barnet and Herts athletes, in her calm and controlled manner. Mimi Blake put in another excellent effort to finish in 6th, followed by Nell Swinhoe in 9th and Matilda Heath in 17th. These girls have all had a wonderful season in many different ways and although they most probably won’t catch 2nd place this season we should all be excited about what could happen next year.  Much hope for the future.

Lily McKay (24th) and Phoebe Rockford (52nd) both deserve a special mention for their performances and their long – term commitment to LHS too. It was lovely to hear and see both of them cheering on the senior teams after their races and it won’t be too long now before they will be moving up to the Seniors.

Senior Women
So much to say about this that I am not sure where to start..... So, the  A Team  finished 1st in Division 1 on the day and are now 82 points ahead of their 2nd place  rivals in the league, who will continue not to be named. We are bigger than that, LHS. These really are exciting times.

There were so many outstanding and worthy performances but Rachel Normand, nee Newstead, deserves to be called-out for her efforts on Saturday. Rachel  is a totally utterly brilliant person, not just for making the journey down from Scotland for the fixture, nor for finishing 16th overall and 3rd LHS, but for her sheer commitment to the club. Thank you, Rachel. We needed you! Ella Waldman built on her strong run at the Middx Champs last week and finished first for LHS in 5th place, despite having a bit of a nasty ankle problem towards the end of the race. In case any rivals are reading this, it’s just a minor thing and Ella is already doing hill sprints. Rebecca Piggott, who is in phenomenal form this year, finished in 7th, just behind Ella, putting on another master class in XC running.  Josie Hinton had an absolute stormer of a race and cut through the field during the second lap to finish in an impressive  22nd and 4th for LHS. She should be very happy with her performance.

You will, I hope, be beginning to build a picture in your head of a ‘swarm of Heathside locusts’ (not my words) at the front of the race. Bethany, despite saying that she finds XC hard (it did not look like it) was 4th LHS home in 23rd place, followed by Kelly Thorneycroft in 24th. These were our A teamers, who did an amazing job in a field of class runners. Rebecca Bunting is continuing her return to form and came home just behind Kelly in 25th place. This really does show the strength and depth of the women currently. Olivia Desborough had a stand-out run and has been one to watch this season, improving race on race. She finished in 27th place. Lily Woolcock, Sara Black, Satu Hietanen and Louisa Pointon should all be mentioned on their runs too.

It’s not possible to pick out every performance but all of the women’s team should be so proud and know that each and every one of your efforts counts and, whether it was your first or fiftieth run for LHS, it is appreciated and contributes to our position on the day and in the league.

Looking through the results was an absolute pleasure. Before moving on to the men’s race it should be mentioned that the women’s Vets have everything to race for now; we are currently in joint place with Barnet and that means that we need all of our over 35 stalwarts out in force at the next Met League at Trent Park on Saturday 10th February. We could be lifting a cup (or, dare I say it, two??).

Senior Men
The Men’s team were given a bit of a hard time after the last fixture and it was all doom and gloom and lots of relegation talk. I am delighted to report that things are definitely looking up after your heroic efforts on Saturday. Captain Jake must have given a few of you the hairdryer treatment – and it worked. He’s brutal. However, there is still a lot to be done, especially in the Vets team.
The great news is that we had 9 men finish in the top 100 and 3 in the top fifty. This is excellent and such an improvement on the fixture 3 results. First home for LHS  was Andrew Brooker  in 47th place, closely followed by Olivier Le Polain in 49th place. Olivier looks to be returning to form after his recent injuries. Kimon followed closely in 50th and was not happy at mistiming his attack on Olivier to be beaten in the closing stages. ‘This will not happen again’ he declared after the race. (I made that up) Charles Hardy, in 56th continues to be a great A team runner, and Charlie Ogilvie put in a magnificent performance to finish in 60th place. Although he has not been training with LHS for long my spies tell me that he recently run a 74 minute half marathon and clearly has a great deal of potential. The other runners to finish in the top 100 were: Rich McCauley  in 74th, Michele Bucci in 81 and Pete Northall in 84th and Peter Gould in 88th. Excellent running all-round.

William Griffiths, who has been coached by Zac for some time had a superb run to finish 5th U20 and 118th. I hear there was a battle between William and Jo Garroud, with the younger man being triumphant this time. Further down the field there were the usual battles and rivalries unfolding.  I know that Chris Hartley will be delighted to finish as 1st V50 Vet in 140th place, proving that his unusual  pre-race preparations – this week involving headstands – really do pay-off. Probably best not to be copied by most. Ed Samuels, having suffered with a number of injuries and still not back to his peak fitness, finished in 182nd place. He will be back, watch this space.

Captain Jake was literally caught with his pants down as he mistimed his pre-race ablutions and had to sprint to the start, receiving rapturous applause from the patient runners. Despite this he ran a  strong race and finished in 215th, not yet claiming Chris Hartley’s scalp. Unrelated to Jake’s incident, Ash also just  escaped  missing the start as he had gone back to his car to warm – up (more strange pre-race prep going on) and just arrived as the gun went. He finished in 223rd and 2nd V55. David Hellard, despite tearing it round the course to cheer the women on, still had some energy left to battle Andy Barnes in the last stages of the race. They finished 123rd and 124th respectively.

John Flahive was just behind Ash, securing 6th V50 and 226th.  Antanis Weston, U20, also had another solid run to finish 17th U20 and 230th. Ken Townsend deserves a special mention, not just because it was his birthday on Saturday, but I also hear that he did the dirty double and ran in the Sunday League at Watford the day after. Great effort all-round, Ken. Adrian Essex also slogged it out and put in a committed performance. Every effort counts.

The Men’s vets were missing some of their key runners due to injury and that cost the team on the day and overall in the league. They were 3rd on the day and are now  3rd overall in the league. Lots of rest and recovery should see these aging chaps right and they should be out on the last fixture at Trent Park.

Thank you, a massive congratulations and a big pat on the back to all of you who came and raced on Saturday. The Men’s A team are now in 7th place and (hopefully) out of the relegation zone, which is excellent news but we still need you all to turn out for the 5th and final fixture on the 10th Feb.

Well done all and watch out for future notices about upcoming fixtures. Full results are below.

Cupa RMA, Bucharest
A bit further afield, Nicu Diaconu ran a middle distance double on an indoor track in Bucharest over the weekend.

Egmond Half Marathon, Netherlands, 14.01.2017
Bas Vlaming took part in the Egmond Half on Sunday and wrote: “This is a fairly popular winter race here in the Netherlands. I suppose part of the 'charm' is the fact that it involves 8 km of North Sea beach, which in January does not necessarily translate into pleasant running conditions. All in all this was just an averagely heavy edition - rather cold, but dry and not very windy, and the tide was such that only a good 2k of the beach was either soft, ankle-deep sand or cold, shallow bits of sea. The return loop was mostly dunes and forest, reasonably pretty but packed with other runners throughout the race. Still, it was a fun day out and given the conditions and my slow return to fitness, I can live with my time of 1.51.44 (2656 out of 8995 runners apparently).

A good selection of parkruns were raced with first places achieved at Ally Pally by Ruth Forbes in 23.02 and Luke Wynne in Tring in 19.47. I couldn’t help noticing the huge variation in numbers of runners at the various races, from 2,451 at North Beach Parkrun compared to only 82 at Pymmes Parkrun!

FULL RESULTS

Cupa RMA, Bucharest
Jan 13th, 1500m
5th Nicu Diaconu 4:19.28

Jan 14th, 800m
5th  Nicu Diaconu 2:02.89

Egmond Half Marathon, Netherlands, 14.01.2017
2656th 1.51.44 Bas Vlaming

Met League 4, Wormwood Scrubs, Saturday

U11 Girls Individual Results               
3  0:06'25.89 Hattie Munday     
31  0:07'44.58 Amara Odeogberin       
40  0:07'59.64 Alice Reed 
48  0:08'46.70 Eloise Dark 
49  0:08'54.45 Madie Chaplin   

U13 boys Individual Results               
0:12'12.61 Spike Blake 
0:12'55.17 Stan Hasson 
0:13'44.24 Arthur Reed   
0:15'05.36 Niko Schmidt-Chiari 

U13 Girls Individual Results               
0:14'43.27 Ella O'Flaherty 
0:17'08.95 Fabienne Weston 
              
Junior Men Individual Results               
13 8 766  0:14'46.42 Jake Evans
33 23 757  0:15'32.83 Oliver O'Connor 
41 30 765  0:16'17.55 Stanley Brown 
60 45 764  0:17'20.61 Kit Naylor

Junior Women Individual Results4 3 446  0:16'03.27 Rose Garrett 
10 6 921  0:16'47.58 Mimi Blake 
13 9 437  0:16'54.55 Nell Swinhoe 
24  923  0:17'35.67 Lily McKay 
27 17 436  0:17'55.55 Matilda Heath 
52  444  0:20'09.77 Phoebe Crockford 
53    0:20'13.77 Aureli  Hadid

Senior Women Individual Results                
5  403  0:23'16.17 Ella Waldman  
7  372  0:23'35.08 Rebecca Piggott 
16  417  0:24'16.33 Rachel Normand
22  404  0:24'33.64 Josie Hinton 
23  410  0:24'40.27 Bethany Scott 
24  380  0:24'43.89 Kelly Thorneycroft 
25  373  0:24'49.92 Rebecca Bunting  
27  401  0:24'53.45 Olivia Desborough  
31 1 371  0:25'19.55 Sarah Swinhoe 
51  378  0:26'31.95 Lily Woolcock 
60 5 430  0:26'52.27 Sara Black 
61 3 376  0:26'53.02 Satu Hietanen 
66  398  0:26'58.89 Emma Watson
71  379  0:27'10.33 Jennifer Wing 
72 5 386  0:27'11.74 Emily Reichert
81 7 377  0:27'42.61 Monika Newton 
83  375  0:27'46.14 Louisa Pointon
86  1545  0:27'49.64 Clare Briggs 
89 9 416  0:27'54.33 Liz Drake 
92  396  0:27'59.45 Tara Shrestha-Carney 
95  392  0:28'02.99 Yanna Raykov 
101  385  0:28'21.17 Lucie Mauger 
105 6 409  0:28'25.17 Emilia Vynnycky 
107  405  0:28'30.42 Marie Howard 
109  411  0:28'34.14 Alice Hosking 
113  399  0:28'42.11 Sarah Taylor 
123 2 374  0:28'55.05 Jaqueline Wastell 
134 1 414  0:29'35.42 Angela Howe
143 11 429  0:30'04.33 Elizabeth Beard 
158 13 408  0:30'27.74 Cathy Jeremiah 
172  393  0:31'34.49 Sarah Duke  
207 12 420  0:33'47.24 Marianne Gibson
213 22 415  0:34'40.52 Rachel Scott Halls
226    0:35'29.42 Samantha Taylor
228 24 400  0:35'34.49 Sara Dark 
234 23 394  0:35'53.30 Laura Boothman 
255    0:41'23.67 Dulce Laluces                        

Senior Men Individual Results           
47  726  0:28'44.74 Andrew Brooker 
49  1424  0:28'49.02 Olivier Le Polain 
50  644  0:28'52.58 Kimon Doulis 
56  676  0:28'59.33 Charles Hardy 
60  1542  0:29'02.58 Charlie Ogilvie 
74  670  0:29'24.46 Richard Macaulay 
81  641  0:29'30.95 Michele Bucci 
84  662  0:29'33.52 Peter Northall 
88  648  0:29'36.30 Peter Gould* 
102 7 746  0:29'55.77 Juan Carlos Casal Perez 
113  654  0:30'08.64 Sion Lewis 
118 5 1423  0:30'24.14 William Griffiths 
119  671  0:30'24.55 Joe Garrood 
122  656  0:30'27.77 Simon Dunderdale 
123  750  0:30'29.64 David Hellard 
124  719  0:30'31.33 Andy Barnes 
140 1 632  0:30'51.95 Chris Hartley 
173  687  0:31'39.61 Michael Cockings 
182  691  0:31'55.36 Edward Samuel 
185  682  0:31'58.99 Alex Sweet 
187 17 708  0:32'00.70 Jonathan Shipley 
190  1543  0:32'05.42 Ibrahim Adam Alkher 
196  689  0:32'11.24 Henry Turner 
203 10 703  0:32'15.17 Matthew Cockerill 
215  635  0:32'24.49 Jake Spencer 
221  1418  0:32'34.80 Joseph Clemoes
223 2 642  0:32'36.67 Asmelash Abrha 
226 6 1420  0:32'41.14 John Flahive 
230 17 643  0:32'45.70 Antanas Weston 
239  1547  0:32'59.49 Andrew McGeary 
240  724  0:33'01.17 Natan Doron 
242  655  0:33'02.89 Edward Adams 
250  636  0:33'13.24 Leonard Martin
251  647  0:33'13.52 Christopher Vincent 
257 4 640  0:33'21.64 Gavin Evans 
259 10 661  0:33'25.08 Dominic Jackson 
284  1550  0:33'51.45 Doug Rendle 
294 20 694  0:34'05.83 Trevor Wilson 
301 32 1426  0:34'13.92 Marcus Tillotson 
307  650  0:34'23.92 David Fallon 
321 24 651  0:34'46.95 Jacob Howe 
326 38 652  0:34'56.36 Jonathan Litchfield 
334 21 1546  0:35'07.55 Mark George 
335 7 631  0:35'07.30 Pete Crockford 
337  701  0:35'11.89 Thomas Griffiths 
340  696  0:35'14.33 Jack Pinnick-Gray 
349  1422  0:35'25.05 Tom Haworth 
367 24 660  0:36'18.17 Roger Wagland 
379 29 683  0:36'29.33 Andrew Owen 
397 27 1549  0:36'56.58 Stuart Amblin
399 48 634  0:36'57.99 James Dark 
419 39 686  0:37'28.11 Andrew Johnston* 
461 45 713  0:38'55.74 Steve Jones 
463 46 658  0:38'59.89 Elliot Reed 
464 21 1544  0:39'03.49 Andrew Hudson 
468 22 716  0:39'17.11 Russell Weston 
474 40 1417  0:39'30.64 Tim Sander 
491  1548  0:40'19.30 Ivan Ross 
499  695  0:40'50.58 Daniel Wrapson 
511 29 637  0:41'17.24 Norman Mitchell 
516  1541  0:41'52.05 James Nicholls 
528 56 717  0:43'34.55 Ken Townson 
540 8 1425  0:46'35.92 Adrian Essex