County Title triumph for Heathside at Middlesex XC Championships

Possibly aided by the familiar home terrain of Hampstead Heath, to which the race returned to mark the Middlesex AA Centenary, the club celebrated an immensely successful Middlesex Championships, at both team and individual level. Of particular note were the Senior Men’s team (reportedly for the first time since 1984!(as North L:ondon AC)), and the U13 Girls team winning the County title. There were also individual medals for Thomas Archer, Seyfu Jamaal, Koppany Szentes, and Hattie Munday, plus a number of other medal winning team performances.

The roll of honour on a very successful day for the club, on top of the golds mentioned above, comprised : silver for the Senior Women and U15 Boys, bronze for the U20 Men, U17 Women, U15 Girls, and U11Girls. Plus individual silver for Seyfu Jamaal in the SM, silver for Thomas Archer in the U20M, bronze for Hattie Munday in the U17W, and bronze for Koppany Szentes in the U15B .

Simon Baker sent this report on the day’s action

“ The first races saw the U11s negotiate slopes of Parliament Hill itself.  Our young boys team were somewhat swamped in one of the biggest fields of the day with Alexander Rankin our first home in 29th place.  The girls faired better with Edith Deakin (11th) leading Mia Beeby (14th) and Thalia Roberts (18th) over the line to secure team bronze.  The U13 Boys had a good turnout.  Charlie Nicolson was 1st home in 10th place with Rory Willis 23s behind and Ennio Kalouikian our last scorer in 22nd to place the team 4th.  The Girls team packed well from the start with Rosa Cormacain 5th, in her first championships, behind her Lila Blustin finished 8th and Caitlin Roberts 9th to ensure the U13 Girl title remained at Finsbury Park.  

A big team of U15 Boys saw Koppany Szentes out sprint a large pack of runners on the finishing straight to take the bronze medal.  Dylan Mills and Sam Turner finished in 11th and 12th to take team silver only 6 points behind winners SBH.  Our U15 Girls team are also young all in their first year in this age group competed well in a race dominated by VP&TH. Amy Kirk continued her fine form finishing 5th with Kiara Corkin only 20s behind and Lettice Gundry 16th to leave the team tied with Highgate on 29 pts only to miss out on silver by count back. Our U17s are also a year young but their efforts here were led by Hattie Munday who took bronze however Milly watkins and Lucy Corkin's efforts mean't she took home team bronze as well. George Saint and David Baah-Okyere led the U17 Mens efforts with Alex Smith the final scorer which saw them miss out on a bronze by 4 pts. Thomas Archers 2nd place in the U20 Mens race supported by Luke Pike (13th) and Janak Subberwal (17th) was enough to secure another bronze.

A weakened women's team battles valiently to finish 2nd behind TVH with Rebecca Piggott 7th, Nicola Graham 9th, Lily Woolcock 13th and Millie Barnes 14th.  Sympathy to poor Annabel Judd who fell and broke her arm.  The mens race was a cagey affair with TVH, Highgate also having large teams.  Jacob Allen of Highgate proved to be a convincing winner but Seyfu was close behind for his 2nd place.  George Gurney ws 4th and Joseph Young 6th to give us a convincing lead with 3 of 6 runners home.  TVH however moved ahead with 5 runners in however Yann Sevestre (14th), Mathew Wheat (19th) and finally Raoul Metcalfe (15th) saw us finish on 60 pts 1 pt ahead of TVH.Sion Lewis was the 1st U40 home.

Thank you to everyone took part and our hearty band of volunteer marshalls who helped the event run so efficiently.”

Middlesex XC Centenary Championships, Parliament Hill 21 Jan

Senior Men (12K, 137 runners)

1st J Allen (Highgate Harriers) 37:08

2nd Seyfu Jamaal 37:40

4th George Gurney 39:10

6th Joseph Young 39:41

14th Yann Sevestre 42:26

15th Raoul Metcalf 42:35

19th Matthew Wheat 42.44

20th Sion Lewis 43:11

24th Harry Kleiman 44:01

35th Oliver Negus 45:57

39th Ewan Gault 46:17

43rd Sammy Keenan 47:02

45th Ryan McCarthy 47:11

47th Adam Mitchell 47:17

53rd Justin Badger 47:36

55th Martin Potter 47:53

69th Matt Beard 49:56

71st Chris Hartley 50:05

75th Jose Sabroso 50:47

85th Nick Hayward 51:39

86th Rob Shulman 51:45

89th Philip Hogg 51:51

93rd Valentin Valeanu 52:24

100th Marcus Tillotson 54:16

102nd Jonathan Hopkin 54:41

104th Federico Forti 55:21

114th Gavin Evans 57:24

128th Daniel Wrapson 62:09

1st London Heathside (Jamaal, Gurney, Young, Sevestre, Metcalf, Wheat) 60 pts, 2nd TVH 61 pts

U13 Girls   (3K, 38 runners)

1st J March (Barnet) 11:56

5th Rosa Cormacain 12:45

8th Lila Blustin 13:13

9th Caitlin Roberts 13:18

14th Margot Hunt 13:30

24th Maya Westgate 14:13

30th Kitty Kelsall 14:58

35th Lydia Negatu 15:36

1st London Heathside  (Cormacain, Blustin, Roberts) 22 pts, 2nd ESM 35 pts

 Senior Women   (8K, 74 runners)

1st A Mundell (TVH) 30:28

7th Rebecca Piggott 32:16

9th Nicola Graham 32:47

13th Lily Woolcock 33:27

14th Millie Barnes 33:39

22nd Ciera Kennedy 35:34

30th Tanya Addison 37:35

42nd Jackie Wastell 40:41

45th Kimberli Butler 41:46

54th Rebecca Marshall 44:05

1st TVH 26 pts, 2nd London Heathside (Piggott, Graham, Woolcock, Barnes) 43 pts

U20 Men ( 6K, 19 runners)

1st C Hudson (Harrow) 19:57

2nd Thomas Archer 20:04

6th Oliver O'Connor 20:31

13th Luke Pike 21:57

17th Janak Subberwal 24:36

1st SBH 12 pts, 3rd London Heathside (Archer, O'Connor, Pike) 21 pts

U17 Women  ( 6K, 17 runners)

1st L Russell (Highgate Harriers) 22:28

3rd Hattie Munday 24:47

9th Milly Watkins 25:53

12th Lucy Corkin 26:59

1st St Mary's Richmond 17 pts, 3rd London Heathside (Munday, Watkins, Corkin) 25 pts

U17 Men  ( 6K, 32 runners)

1st M Cattini (Harrow) 20:23

9th George Saint 22:07

11th David Baah-Okeyere 22:41

17th Alex Smith 23:07

27th Gregory Berrisford-Sweet 24:39

30th Artie Feeny-Willings 26:02

32nd Ivor Joslin 27:32

1st Highgate 18 pts, 3rd Barnet 33 pts, 4th London Heathside (Saint, Baah Okyere, Smith) 37 pts

U15 Boys ( 4K, 40 runners)

1st A Phillips (SBH) 14:08

3rd Koppany Szentes 14:25

11th Dylan Mills 15:04

12th Sam Turner 15:07

15th Eric Beale 15:31

19th Ben Redland 15:54

24th Frank Bailey 16:02

26th Phoenix Benhote 16:04

34th Ben Ryan 17:24

1st SBH 20 pts, 2nd London Heathside (Szentes, Mills, Turner) 26 pts

U15 Girls ( 4K, 34 runners)

1st R James (VP&TH) 15:01

5th Amy Kirk 15:52

8th Kiara Corkin 16:12

16th Lettice Gundry 17:32

24th Ivy Gray 18:32

1st VPTH 6 pts, 2nd Highgate Harriers 29 pts, 3rd London Heathside (Kirk, Corkin, Gundry) 29 pts

U13 Boys ( 3K, 42 runners)

1st H Harding (St Mary's Richmond) 11:07

10th Charlie Nicolson 12:01

18th Rory Willis 12:24

22nd Ennio Kaloukian 12:31

36th Owen Scheck 13:52

38th Pip Young 14:31

1st VP&TH 14 pts, 4th London Heathside (Nicolson, Willis, Kaloukian) 50 pts

U11 Boys ( 1500m, 54 runners)

1st B Kasper (SBH) 7:34

29th Alexander Rankin 8:52

36th Kit Young 9:09

44th William Edwards 9:48

1st SBH 12 pts, 9th London Heathside (Rankin, Young,Edwards) 109 pts

U11 Girls ( 1500m, 26 runners)

1st M George 8:06

11th Edith Deakin 9:14

14th Mia Beeby 9:30

18th Thalia Roberts 10:11

20th Verity Mitchell 10:17

1st SBH 24 pts, 3rd London Heathside (Deakin, Beeby, Roberts) 43 pts

Chingford League XC, Epping Forest,                      21 Jan

 Pete Crockford reports from Epping Forest, where despite a small club turnout both himself and Sue remain in strong contention for overall age group honours

“ A gorgeous sunny morning for an epic outing in Epping Forest, icy cold on frozen, rutted ground, but not a breath of wind. Proper cross country, on tricky terrain twisting through woods, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed, despite some savage hills.

Sue was 2nd WV60, potentially improving on her 3rd place standing for the season going in to it. I was 2nd  MV60, which may well be enough for me to retain my title from last season (with one to go) … Alex debuted with a solid top half finish, but was hampered on the steep descents by an old ankle injury from which he is not fully recovered.”

Seniors, “5 miles 

97           Pete Crockford     41:06      2nd MV60

131         Alex Praag            44:28

202         Sue Eedle  V65     51:07     2nd   WV60

292 finishers

Parkruns

Highlights include 1st place finishes for Chiara Borg, Lordship Rec  21.15, &  Brogan Wallace, Wanstead Flats  18.10

Full results can be found here

Compiled by Mark George, thanks for reporting from Simon Baker and Pete Crockford, and action pics from Lenny Martin