Kirk-Smith comes in from the cold with 1500 bronze in the great indoors

Kirk-Smith claims bronze at South of England Indoor Champs

The irrepressible Adam Kirk-Smith rebounded from a soggy, boggy Met League course at Perivale to win bronze in the 1500m. This is AKS's second SEAA medal (he got bronze in the 5000m outdoors last summer). He also broke the club record for 1500 indoor, running 4:04 to win his heat and 4:01 in the final.

In the same meet, we had season's bests for Jimmy in the 60m, on his way to the quarter finals and Darnell in the U20 200m. Helene was our only lady in action, from what I could see in the results.

South of England Athletics Association Indoor Championships
Lee Valley, 16/17 January

60m SM quarter final
4 Jimmy Thoronka 7.05

60m SM heats
2 Jimmy Thoronka 7.04

60m U20m qualifying
6 Darnell Plummer 7.65

60m SW heats
6 Helene Kehoe 9.49

200m U20m heats
5 Darnell Plummer 24.38

1500m heats
1 Adam Kirk-Smith 04:04.2

1500m final
3 Adam Kirk-Smith 04:01.6

Winter wonderland in Watford for small band of Sunday Leaguers 

Snow in Watford has seen the cancellation of the Half Marathon in recent years, but thankfully the Sunday League organisers were in no hurry to cancel this weekend’s race, which meant we were in for a treat. The small but hardy band of Heathsiders who assembled in Cassiobury Park were greeted by a winter wonderland: a course comprising an outward/return section on snow-covered slopes, taking in two laps of woodland that could have doubled for Narnia.

This month, the starring system gets out of control, as people variously ‘did the double’ with Horsenden the day before, but also get extra stars for having partaken in the post-Met League evening celebrations and/or getting 10+ miles warm-ups(Rachel and Dan) and warm-downs (Laura and Jess) in along the tow path either side of Sunday’s race. There was also something about Dan eating a snowball, but I think he might just have been looking for ways to earn extra stars…

On to the race highlights. Dan McKeown once again led Heathside home, in 46th overall, with Jonathan Litchfield in hot pursuit in 57th. Rachel Newstead was 3rd in the women’s race and by my calculations has a strong chance of winning the senior ladies’ title if she can make it to Royston next month and finish amongst the top 10 women. Good running from everyone who showed, with the men’s team very much on damage control, only fielding5 men out of the minimum 8 required:

• The women’s A team finished 6th, while the men can count themselves lucky with 12th place following penalties for the three no-shows.
• The outcome of this is that the women maintain their 8th place overallafter four fixtures, but the men’sA team has now dropped to 10th(the same as this time last season; the women are one place lower this time around).
• Men’s vets finished 15th and drop to 10th overall, while women’s vets finished 10th and are 11th overall.

♥ Be our Sunday League Valentine? ♥
The final Sunday League fixture will be on 14th February at Therfield Heath, Royston – details to follow nearer the time. Let’s do our best to go out in a blaze of glory, and hopefully finish the season with both teams in the top half of the table!

Results
Women (123 finishers)
3 ***Rachel Newstead*** 42:35
35 **Jessica Vinluan** 49:52
42 Gabi Johnson 50:29
63 Valeria Rodriguez 53:40
70 Sue Eedle 54:14
95 ***Laura Boothman*** 59:13

Men (222 finishers)
46 ****Dan McKeown**** 39:39
57 **Jonathan Litchfield** 40:28
117 Gavin Parish 44:35
120 Marco Maserati 45:00
181 Steve Betts 51:09

More bronzed glory in Country to Capital Ultra

Anyone going for a dip in the canal after the Met League race (just me?) might have seen Dave Hellard headbanging his way past in the latter stages of the Country to Capital Ultra. Dave alternately bewails the lack of course marking and the fact that it just followed the canal. However, he does have the honour of pre-empting AKS by scooping the club's first bronze medal of the weekend, powering his way to third place, thanks to a combination of The Prodigy and Pro-plus.

"I'm pretty pleased with the result, but would not say I'm an ultra convert," Dave warbled into an imaginary microphone to the tune of Boyzone after the race. "They're way too long and boring."

Lest we forget, Dave's running the Marathon Des Sables in April.

Elsewhere

• A very belated but hugely deserved 'Well done' to club newbie Kelly Thorneycroft: while most of us were in action at the Scrubs on County Champs day (9 January) she was hoovering up 4th place in the Derbyshire Champs in Heanor, earning herself an Inter Counties vest.

• Bas Vlaming found the advertised Coastal Trail '10k' a bit of an understatement (it was more like 12). "It was also muddy, slippery, cold and unsurprisingly rather hilly (running up and down cliffs basically)," says Bas who sounds like he wouldn't have been out of place at the XC. I'm presuming Daniel Johns didn't have the same problem in the Battersea Park 10k where he ran 37:35 - otherwise a couple of our club records could be going his way shortly.

• Most of you will have been eagerly awaiting news of the Sefton Brancker XC Trophy, well wait no longer! Tony has the following:
  "I was a late call up to the Civil Service team. This event is hosted by the RAF at Wendover; they compete against the Civil Service, Police and Fire Service and the course comprises 11.6km of lovely undulating woodland. I made a poor substitute for Tom Aldred who came second last year. Best thing about the day was being offered hot food (a choice of chilli con carne or mushroom stroganoff) after the race. Very welcome on a freezing cold day." 

Derbyshire XC Champs (8k), Heanor, 9 January
4 Kelly Thorneycroft 33:42

Runthrough Battersea Park 10k, 16th January
14 Daniel Johns 37:35

Endurance Life CTS Dover 10k+, 16 January
22 Bas Vlaming 01:12:21

Sefton Brancker Trophy, 14 January
50 Tony Killilea 53:53

Last week's parkrun results (for anyone who didn't fancy cross country, but thought the Country to Capital might be a bit on the long side.