Heathside women take bronze in National Cross Country Champs

This week’s big highlight is the remarkable performance of Heathside’s women in the English National Cross-Country Championships at Hampstead Heath on Saturday, with Beth Hawling taking a splendid eight place out of more than a thousand finishers and the women’s team coming third in the country. So huge congratulations to Beth, Brogan Wallace, Rebecca Bunting and Josie Hinton for their best-ever Heathside showing. Our first man was Seyfu Jamaal who won his appeal for asylum in the UK last months and proved his huge potential by coming 52nd out of more than 2,000 runners. Meanwhile, Adrian Essex won a silver and bronze medal in the V70 200m and 400m at the European Masters in Portugal.

ECCA National Cross Country Championship, Parliament Hill, 26.2.22

Simon Baker reports that Saturday saw the climax to the club’s cross-country season with the return of The English National Championships after a year’s break and over the classic Parliament Hill Course.  The previous weeks had seen the mud return to parts of the Heath while other parts were firm, offering a mix of fast and ‘technical’ racing.   it also proved to be an historic one for the club with the Senior Women securing our first National medals since our own Chairman Jerry Odlin won a bronze in the 1973 youth race.

Heathside had 105 runners across the age groups as well as 16 volunteering to marshal.  We had 16 runners finish in the top 10 of their race with Beth Hawling’s 8th place in the seniors race the clubs best ever senior placing.  The U15 Girls also recorded an extremely creditable 10th place.

Senior Report

Our senior women’s team have established themselves as one of the best in the country with medals at the southern relays and championships and retaining their Met League title.  With four to score it is essential to get at least the first runner to finish high up and Beth Hawling again produced settling into a group of runners chasing eventual winner Jess Gibbon (Reading) to cross the line in 8th covering the 8km course in just over 30 mins.  Beth was in a group of four, racing to the finish, and was only a second behind the sixth placed runner.

Behind her the team had settled into a good rhythm with Brogan Wallace looking comfortable finishing 46th, Rebecca Bunting, returning from injury, was also having a strong race relishing the hills of the heath and came home in 55th.  Both Leeds and Reading had all their runners home but the bronze medal was still up for grabs with Tonbridge on 102 points having three runners against our 109 pts, so the next finisher would be critical and Josie Hinton, back to fine racing form after having a baby, secured 3rd place for the club crossing the line six seconds after Rebecca to give the the club 166 pts.  Evangelista Divetain was only seven seconds back in 60th and crossed the line before the last Tonbridge runner finished in 73rd place.  Annie Arnold (75th) and Olivia Desborough (88th) also finished in the top 10 demonstrating the strength of the club at the moment.

The senior men’s team was led home by Seyfu Jamaal, back competing for the club over the 12km course -  running with a group to the front of the 3,000-plus field and crossing the line in 52nd place. V40 Tom Aldred also dug in to produce a 115th place an improvement on the 137th he recorded in 2018. Heathside vest continued to be prominent in the throng of runners with Christopher Vincent next in 167th, Kieran Morris (234th), James Morris (272nd) and James Hurrell (278th) all finishing below 50 minutes.  The team’s 17th place was a fine result and of our Met League rivals, only Highgate and TVH finished above us.

Junior Reports

Many of the club’s Juniors had never competed in a national championship and this was a good opportunity for them to experience a large scale, high-profile event.  Our best performance came from our U15 Girls who recorded a superb 10th place with the first three all in the top 70, although Izzy Watkins could not stick with the pace set by the leaders over the two-lap course, she kept a good rhythm finishing in 18:14 and 38th place.   

Thirty seconds behind Izzy, her sister, Milly Watkins, and Hattie Munday packed in together finishing 63rd and 70th respectively with three runners home for 171 pts the club were in a bunch of clubs with Rotherham and Wreake Valley assured of the top two places.  Ishaana Cannell and Lucy Corkin were next in 153rd and 166th places to give the club 10th place - ahead of all our Met League rivals.    

Notable performances elsewhere include Kiara Corkin’s 61st place in the U13 Girls in which we had eight runners, three of whom will still be U13 next year.  In the U13 Boys seven ran with Koppany Szentes first home in 42nd place followed by Rory Willis who secured a top 100 place despite still being an U11.

The U15 Boys found the going tough in a highly competitive race David Baah-Okyere was our first home in 164th place, Maia Hampton Phillips also recorded a 154th place in the U17 Women.  The U17 Men saw Bedo Draskoczy finish a good race in 72nd with the team finishing 19th.  Injury and illness hit our Junior Men’s team with Thomas Archer unable to finish with Oliver O’Connor finishing 73rd place.

That completes the senior club cross country season although the Juniors have one more League race and then National Schools and Inter Counties Races this month.  The National next year will be at Harewood House NE of Leed

U13 Girls 3km 380 Runners

U13 Girls enjoying the sunshine

1st K Webb (Marshall Milton Keynes) 12:38

61st Kiara Corkin 13:50

149th Lettice Gundry 14:54

230th Ivy Gray 15:39

239th Caitlin Roberts 15:42

303rd Jessica Lappin 16:21

308th Lila Blustin 16:26

318th Maya Westgate 16:38

330th Elkie Baker 16:46 

Team:- 1st Marshall Milton Keynes 55 pts, 25th London Heathside (Corkin, Gundry, Gray, Roberts) 679 pts (37 Teams)

U13 Boys, 3Km, 397 Runners

1st J Meyburgh (WSE&H) 11:06

42nd Koppany Szentes 12:49

98th Rory Willis 13:25

106th Dylan Mills 13:29

161st Frank Bailey 13:58

162nd Sam Turner 13:59

188th Ben Redland 14:10

328th Harry Conley 15:44

Team: 1st Trafford Athletic 143 pts, 16th London Heathside (Sxentes, Willis, Mills, Bailey) 407 pts (41 Teams)

U15 Girls, 4Km 353 Runners

1st I Waugh (Rotherham Harriers) 16:11

38th Izzy Watkins 18:14

63rd Milly Watkins 18:43

70th Hattie Munday 18:50

158th Ishaana Cannell 20:00

166th Ruby Walls 20:07

333rd Libby Judd Hawkes 24:04

345th Maddison Frawley 26:11

Team:- 1st Wreake & Soar Valley 61 pts, 10th London Heathside (I Watkins, M Watkins, Munday, Cannell) 329 pts (43 Teams)

U15 Boys, 4km 412 Runners

1st R Price (Vale Royal) 14:15

164th David Baah-Okyere 17:13

272nd Gregory Berrisford Smith 18:09

324th Ivor Joslin 18:51

326th Ben Ryan 18:54

391st Artie Feeny-Willings 20:42

407th Alexander Butcher 23:01

Team 1st Chiltern Harriers 157 pts, 36th London Heathside (Baah-Okyere, Berrisford-Smith, Joslin, Ryan) 1,086 pts (42 Teams)

U17 Women, 5km, 274 Runners

1st J Bailey (Leven Valley) 19:20

154th Maia Hampton Philips 24:23

243rd Fabienne Weston 28:12

266th Clara Leustean 31:24

U17 Men, 5Km 304 Runners

1st S Mills (Exeter Harriers) 21:14

72nd Bedo Draskoczy 24:08

185th Roni Kizilkaya 26:03

226th Fred Beale 26:56

229th Luke Pike Mullins 27:01

257th Janak Subberwal 27:46

272nd Michael Smith 28:27

Team: 1st South London Harriers 127 pts, 19th London Heathside (Draskoczy, Kizilkaya, Beale, Pike-Mullins) 712 pts (25 Teams)

Junior Men, 10Km 211 Runners

1st W Barnicoat (Aldershot Farnham & District) 32:51

73rd Oliver O'Connor 37:11

Senior Women 8km 1,010 Runners 

1st J Gibbon (Reading) 29:00

Rebecca Bunting likes Hills

8th Beth Hawling 30:09 8
46th Brogan Wallace 32:34 46
55th Rebecca Bunting 33:00 55
57th Josie Hinton 33:06 57
60th Evangelista Divetain 33:13
75th Annie Arnold 33:48
88th Olivia Desborough 34:20
180th Ciera Kennedy 36:24
201st Shannon Sinclair 36:42
227th Genevieve Weston 37:11
261st Lily Woolcock 38:00
316th Laura Hunt 39:05
328th Julie Pickering 39:14
423rd Jennifer Wing 41:04

456th Trudy Kearney 41:39
468th Tanya Addison 41:54
540th Kimberli Butler 43:21
574th Ann Woulfe 44:09
589th Jacqueline Wastell 44:27
626th Claire Hennigan 45:14
714th Jo Irwin 47:07
832nd Sue Eedle 50:40 

Team:- 1st Leeds City 54 pts, 2nd Aldershot Farnham & District 61 pts, 3rd London Heathside (Hawling, Wallace, Bunting, Hinton) 166 pts (104 Teams)

Senior Men, 12Km 2,087 Runners

1st M Mahmed (Southampton) 40:52

Seyfu Leading the Mens Team home

52nd Seyfu Jamaal 45:12
115th Tom Aldred 46:39
167th Christopher Vincent 47:31
234th Kieran Morris 48:40
272nd James Wooldridge 49:17
278th James Hurrell 49:23
311th Francesco Melloni 49:44
391st Andrew Barnes 51:08
410th Harry Kleiman 51:26
416th Sion Lewis 51:30
463rd Conor Brown 52:15
491st Ismail Abukar 52:41
500th Christopher Gracie 52:45
517th Mark Topham 52:59
608th Oliver Negus 53:55 

Tom doesn’t like hills as much as Rebecca

654th Benjamin Palmer 54:46
681st Peter Gould 55:04
701 Tom Fancett 55:18
732nd Jonathan Halliwell 55:44
748th Matthew Wheat 55:57
756th Paul Mercer 56:03
796th Joseph McKeown 56:36
809th Nathan Tipping 56:53
819th Jake Spencer 56:59
844th Paul Beale 57:21
872nd Nicholas Hodges-Gibson 57:44
1091st Liam Hazelton 1:00:41
1134th Gareth Marshall 1:01:22
1169th Peter Scodie-Ward 1:01:50
1171st Rob Shulman 1:01:50 

1191st Valentin Valeanu 1:02:06
1217th Chris Hartley 1:02:28
1258 thJoel Northcott 1:03:10
1366th Matthew Beard 1:04:46
1381st Lee Connor 1:04:59
1492nd Gavin Evans 1:07:12
1508th Leo Pemberton 1:07:36
1585th Marcus Tillotson 1:08:44
1685th Kris Milovsorov 1:10:33
1696th Steve Crowley 1:10:41
1758th Norman Mitchell 1:11:54
1846th Daniel Wrapson 1:14:30
1884th Marco Maserati 1:15:26
2015th Alexander Praag 1:23:42
2081st Robert Gould 1:41:08

Team:- 1st Southampton 209 pts, 17th London Heathside (Jamaal, Aldred, Vincent, Morris, Wooldridge, Hurrell) 1,117 pts

Leon on the starting line in Birmingham

UKA National Indoor Championships, Birmingham, February 26-27

Simon Baker reports on a mixed day for Leon Seale at the UKA Indoor Championships at Birmingham.  Leon, who is Under-20, had qualified for the Senior Men’s 200m event, a major achievement in itself and is currently ranked No27 in the UK with an indoor PB of 21.83 only 0.01 outside his outdoor best.  A National Championships is a major step up with TV, spectators and electronic blocks.  

Leon started his heat well being drawn in lane 3 but became pressured by the runner on his outside and unfortunately stepped out of his lane and was disqualified.  Frustrating as he finished 4th but with a time that would have qualified him for the semi-finals.  Irrespective this was a great achievement and experience and we can look forward to some great performances from Leon this summer.

European Masters Championships, Portugal, February 26

Our V70 star Adrian Essex continued his magnificent form by winning the silver medal in the 200m event. More details to come….

Adrian Essex and Adrian Day at the athletes parade

European Masters Indoor Championships, Braga, Portugal 20-27.2.22

60m (V70)
H1 2nd Adrian Essex (V70) 8.91
Final 4th Adrian Essex (V70) 8.76

200m (V60)
H2 5th Adrian Day (V60) 29.07

200m (V70)
H2 1st Adrian Essex (V70) 29.68
Final 2nd Adrian Essex (V70) 28.75 🥈

400m (V60)
H3 4th Adrian Day (V60) 64:09

400m (V70)
H1 1st Adrian Essex (V70) 69.80
Final 3rd Adrian Essex (V70) 67.48 🥉

60mH (V70)
Final 4th Adrian Essex (V70) 11.39

Long Jump (V70)
5th Adrian Essex (V70) 4.06m

Carsington Water Half Marathon, Sunday, February 27

Ben Montilla completed this one in 1:52.38.

Parkruns, Saturday February 26

Despite the Nationals drawing the best of our talent, 54 Heathsiders took part in 22 Parkruns  on Saturday. The best results were a third place for Johnny Forsyth in Finsbury Park in 17:36 and a second place for Michael Cockings in Milhouses in 18:17. The full club results are here:

https://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=2017&eventdate=2022-02-26

Report by Gavin Evans with big help, as always, from Simon Baker and from Lenny Martin for the pics. Thanks too to Ben Montilla.