Hothersall breaks 1500m record

Another big and busy week for Heathside’s runners, swimmers and triathletes, now that most of us are back from our holidays (a quick count shows that at least 74 of our members took part in races last week).Several results stand out but none more so than Ni’ia Hothersall’s new club record for the 1500m in the Watford Open – 4:36.25. Well done Ni, and please, please, delay your departure to Aussie-land.

Also worthy of top-billing is Sue Rust’s storming second place out of 65 in the Hampstead ‘Duathlon’ (actually, an aquathlon). Marco Luna was another who did well, coming sixth out of 116 men.  

And a big-up for Dan McKeown, back on both legs after his horrific bike accident (not his fault), which left him with six broken ribs, a broken collar bone, a punctured lung and who knows what else. He competed in the a ten mile race in Ilkeston, with Dan finishing in a gutsy 1:15, seven minutes behind younger brother Joe but no doubt Dan will be working on closing that gap in the weeks and months to come.

On to the race-by-race reports…

Watford Open – Wednesday, August 27

Aside from Ni’ia’s club record in the 1500 there were a number of other notable performances from Heathsiders, including a brace of PBs from our junionrs. These included a first place for the rapidly-improving Miron Woldemichael in his 1500m race (4:30.81 – not a PB) followed closely by Daniel Szajna and Myles Calerazzo, both of whom ran PBs. Rachel Seckl also ran a PB in her 3000m race (10:47.54).

Results:

1500m (race 6)
2       4:36.25 Ni’ia Hothersall (club record)

1500m (race 7)
1       4:30.81 Miron Woldemichael
3       4:32.10 Daniel Szajna (PB)
5       4:35.13 Myles Calderazzo (PB)

1500m (race 10)
3       4:19.81 Richard Macaulay

3000m
11      10:47.54        Rachel Seckl (PB)

Long jump
1       6.16    Mark Lawrence
8       4.48    Anne-Christine Scherer

European Veterans Championship – Izmir, Turkey, August 22 – 31

It was touched on last week, but it is worth another shout-out: Heathside stalwart Tony Killilea excelled in representing Britain, and going on to make the 23-man final of the European Vets Championships, where he came eighth. He made the final by coming fourth in his heat (4:50.98) and raised his game considerably in the final, knocking off nearly 10 seconds to finish in 4:41.10. He also ran well in the 800m heats, coming seventh in 2:16.66. The event featured 38 countries and 3,837 competitors.

Results:

European Vets

800m (heats)
7       2:16.66                 Tony Killilea

1500m (heats)
4       4:50.98                 Tony Killilea

1500m (final)
8       4:41.10                 Tony Killilea

London Inter-Club Challenge, Allianz Park, Saturday August 30.

A tight coterie of 14 Heathsiders took part in this meeting and several delivered promising performances, including Anne-Schristine Scherer winning the shot put. But none were more touching than the Garrett family who comprised three of the four starters for the 1-mile race, won by father Ed, followed by 14-year-old son Liam, with 10-year-old daughter Rose.  Any bets for how long it will take before Liam closes that 17 seconds gap on his dad?

Results:

5000m

2nd Andrew Brooker – 16:27.01

800m

5th Richard Macaulay – 2:07.06

100 m (race 1)

7th Jordan Galze (U20) – 11.21

100m (race 5)

6th Jeff Rice – 11.79

100m (race 7)

1st Ashley Braithwaite (U17) – 11.82

5th Michael Bense (M40) – 12.66

100m (race 10)

3rd Alishia Abodunde – 13.87

200m (race 2)

4th Jeff Rice – 23.92

200m (race 3)

2nd Darnell Plummer (U17) – 24.16

6th Michael Bense (M40 – 26.12

200m (race 5)

3rd Anne-Christine Scherer – 27.86

1 Mile

1st Edward Garrett (M40) – 4:53.74

2nd Liam Garrett (U15) – 5:11.36

4th Rose Garrett (U11 Girls) – 6:47.02

Javelin

5th Lucas Golding (M45) – 40.29

Shotput

1st Anne-Cheiarine Scherer – 9.72

Shotput

3rd Izahah Turner-Flavius - 11.57

Hammer

2nd Paul Green – 20.59

Hampstead Duathlon, Hampstead Heath, Sunday, August 31

At lest 24 Heathsiders (13 women and 11 men) braved the cold waters of the Heath to turn out among more than 200 entrants who managed to make the cut for this year’s event (several others applied too late). For the uninitiated it’s a fun event that favours swimmers over runners. According to the organisers it features 950m of swimming and 3.35 miles of running. You start with three lenghts of the 60m Lido (made easier by the fact that you can walk nearly one-quarter of it). Then you slip on your trainers (or, if you are Elspeth, slowly lace them up) and charge off to the men’s pond, dive into the 17C water and swim a lap before you charge off to the women’s pond, and then across the Heath to the mixed pond, and then off to the track. The weather was mercifully warmer than the previous few days, but some of us still had chattering teeth by the end.

The two stand-out peformances came from Sue Rust and Marco Luna – both making their Heath ‘duathlon’ debuts.Sue came second out of 65 in 38:47, which augers very well for whenever it is that she decides to don the Heathside trisuit (because John Driscoll tells me she’s also a ‘natural’ on the bike). Marco, who is already making triathlon waves, was the first Heathsider by well over two minutes, coming sixth out of 116 men in 34:09. Also impressive was Jessica White, daughter of Caroline, Jackie Wastell and Jane Higgins, who came in 10th, 11th and 12th. Martin Potter was our second man in 16th place.

Several other Heathsiders did exeptionally well to complete the event, despite being ill or injured, and none more so than our Emma Bloomfield, who managed not only to swim the three lengths of the pool (two more than promised), but to make a splash in the ponds and complete the course. Briony Fane completed the swims and walked the runs, despite her back troubles, and Sarah Swinhoe and Ruth Miller, both injured, had a chatty jog through the running bits, resisted the temptation to compete with each other or anyone else, and hit the track holding hands.

Results

Women:

2. Sue Rust 38.47

10 Jessica White 42.04

11 Jackie Wastell 42.41

13 Jane Higgins 42.51

18 Elspeth Storrar 43.21

21 Sarah Swinhoe 46.23

23 Ruth Miller 46.24

27 Caroline White 47.23

29 Jo Irwin 48.09

30 Gabrielle Johnson 48.14

33 Alison Harrow 50.25

43 Briony Fane 54.56

Emma Bloomfield

Men:

6 Marco Luna 34.09

16 Martin Potter 36.26

19 Luca Melon 37.30

20 Sergio de Noto 37.35

32 Howard Gold 38.34

40 Dominic Jackson 39.56

43 Brian Boyle 40.24

57 Gavin Evans 43.07

? Brian Deal (running as Louise LeVey) 46.00

75 Ken Townson 59.09

106 James Taggart 59.09

Ilkeston ‘Double or Quits’, Saturday August 30 2014

Wonderful to see our Dan back in action. Here’s his report:

Glory of glories, I have a race to report! Joe and I were part of a 5-strong 'Team McKeown' on Saturday (August 30) at Ilkeston RC's 'Double or Quits' race. After a five-mile lap round Shipley Country Park, you have the option to call it a day or go round again to make it 10 miles. Both of us took on the full 10 miles. Joe vanished off out of sight within the first few minutes and finished 8th overall, in spite of 'encouragement' from our dad at halfway ("You'll never keep that up, you madman.") I won the all-important sprint finish for 30th place. My cousin's wife also did the double, while cousin and uncle were quitters at 5.

Result

8 Joe McKeown 1:08:07

30 Dan McKeown 1:15:40

Serpentine end-of-the-month 5k, Friday August 29

Cathy Jeremiah was the second woman home in 19:32, in this highly-competitive event, which was run in dry but breazy conditions. Gareth Marshall was our first man in, in 32nd place in 18:36. Incidentally, both Cathy and Gareth ran in Parkruns the following day – for Cathy that was her third race in three days.

Results

32nd 18.36 Gareth Marshall

41st 19:08 Jonathan Litchfield

50th  19:32 Cathy Jeremiah (2nd woman)

73rd 20:50 Michael Abrahams

80th 21:01 Mark George

JLL Property 5k, Thursday, August 28

Cathy Jeremiah also came second in this one, noting it was “a little bit like Groundhog Day” because she was the same distance behind the same first women as she would be the following day in the Serpentine 5k (above), “but, unfortunately, I couldn’t get her.” By running twice in two days Cathy lost just one second – her time in the JLL race was 19:31.

Capital Runners, Richmond Park 10k

No report, but our Adam Kirk-Smith did exceptionally well to win this one in an eye-catching time of 35:22.

Cottswold Classic 113, Sunday August 31.

Ellinor East made her half-Ironman distance debut on Sunday, finishing in an extremely promsing time of 5:07:33.8, making her the 10th woman. She completed her 1900m swim in an impressive 36:10.1, her 90k cycle in 2:48.06 and her half marathon run in 1:38.47.7.

Chateur de Chantilly Half Ironman, August 24

Claire Sliwerki made her debut half ironman in France and did well to finish in 6:48.38. Here’s her report: “It is known there as 'The Gauntlet' or in fact 'Le Gantelet'.   The 1,900m swim was in the Grand Canal in from of the stunning Chateau followed by 2x45k bike laps of lovely flat French countryside (apart from the hideously terrifying for nervy cyclists like me cobbled section through one of the villages) then 2x 10.5k offroad laps of the grounds finishing back in front of the Chateau. Fantastic organisation as seems to be the trademark of the Castle Tri Series, a very beginner friendly course and the best goodie bag haul I've ever come across (towel, rucksack, medal, Buff, tshirt, hot food, massage and NO flyers).  Definitely one I'd recommend to anyone. Anyway, times: 1,900m Swim 39.11; T1 7.09; 90k Cycle 3.50.34; T2 2.53; 21k Run 2.08.50; Total 6hrs48.38.”

Parkruns

At least 18 of our runners took part in Parkrun races on Saturday. The pick of the results included Rebecca Bunting’s first in Hackney Marshes (19:20) and Philip Freeman Bentley’s first in Beckton (18:19),

For Saturday’s Parkrun results, use this link: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=2017