Quality results for LH at National Cross-Country Champs
Heathside produced some fine results at the latest National Cross-Country Champs at Parliament Hill on Saturday, fielding full teams in half of the races, and achieving four top 100 individual placings and some impressive team finishes on what was a beautiful day blessed by blue skies and relatively firm going underfoot – and fantastic support!
The conditions made for a remarkable contrast with last year’s mudbath in Alton Towers, when the main challenge was to stay upright rather than run quickly, and I think all were grateful for the balmy weather.
We managed to field full teams in five of the 10 age group races, with Heathside represented in all but the U20 women’s category. Our U13 girls were two shy of a complete team, and our U13 boys just one, but well done to Molly, Phoebe, Luke, Antanas, and Tom for their runs. Our U17 ladies were first up on the day, and in contrast to the Southerns had a full team running, which is great to see. In the U15 boys race Max had a great run to finish comfortably inside the top 100, with an under-the-weather James just outside of that and Johnny and Max completing the four-to-score for an impressive 16th team place. Our U15 girls didn’t place as highly, but a full team is certainly very positive and there looked to be some good individual performances there, too, in particular from Lucy and Lily. Miron and Daniel were two clubmates short of a full team, while Izaiah fought a brave fight all on his own in the junior men’s race. Our senior women produced the best team finish of the day, coming in 11th out of 73 teams, only missing out on joint 10th by three points. We were also the fourth Southern team, an improvement on our 6th place finish in the Southerns in Brighton, if you want to look at it that way. Happily, we also beat some of our Met League competitors. With some 1,600 runners taking part the senior men’s race was an impressive sight, especially at the start when a colourful wave of runners surged (OK, not all were surging) up the initial hill. Tom had a brilliant top 100 finish to lead the men home to a pretty darn good 28th finish out 125 teams in the 6-to-score category and 25th place (out of 62) in the 9-to-score category.
A thank you to all the supporters cheering us on – it makes a difference, even if it doesn’t necessarily look like it!
National Cross-Country Championships, Parliament Hill, 25/02/2012
U13 girls
266th 14:49 Molly Harrison
317 15:43 Phoebe Crockford
368 finishers
U13 boys
253rd 13:18 Luke Gray
319 14:09 Antanas Weston
323 14:17 Tom Mills
373 finishers
U15 boys
80th 16:36 Max Robertson
102 16:51 James Wooldridge
147 17:08 Johnny Naylor
254 18:18 Max Heap
294 19:00 Alex Ahern
336 20:14 Jasper Crockford
362 23:36 Harry Vinall-Smeeth
366 finishers
16th team (583) out of 34
U15 Girls
154th 16:44 Lucy Carter
195 17:12 Lily Beckford
245 17:59 Genevieve Weston
321 20:05 Harriet Mackinney
342 finishers
33rd team (915) out of 37
U17 Men
254th 24:02 Miron Woldemichael
287 24:51 Daniel Szajha
336 finishers
U17 Women
164 24:25 Yanna Raykov
186 26:32 Jade O'Brien
189 27:11 Kathleen Jackson
193 28:34 Ellen Jackson
196 finishers
20th team (732) out of 20
U20 Men
195th 50:30 Izaiah Turner
196 finishers
Senior women
63rd 31:35 Sue Rust
85 32:17 Sarah Swinhoe
146 33:43 Claire Morrissey
197 34:52 Iva Raykov
211 35:15 Edie Fassnidge
298 37:04 Jackie Wastell
306 37:13 Fiona Alston
356 38:24 Caroline White
386 39:02 Jo Irwin
408 39:26 Katherine Vinnicombe
466 41:25 Gabi Johnson
650 finishers
11th team (491) out of 73
Senior Men
86th 39:31 Tom Aldred
248 42:17 George Stewart
340 43:31 Graham Russ
376 43:56 Alex Galloway
475 45:10 Chris Hartley
628 46:56 Simon Brown
629 46:56 Gavin Evans
642 47:07 Anthony Hall
674 47:35 Norman Mitchell
738 48:18 Dominic Jackson
764 48:33 Marcus Tillotson
767 48:36 Andy Welshman
801 49:06 Simon R Hazel
815 49:15 Robert Shulman
830 49:25 Dan McKeown
865 49:48 William Whitaker
894 50:10 Andy Owen
915 50:26 Anthony (?)
940 50:44 Pete Crockford
1040 51:55 Stephen Meredith
1079 52:28 Phil Hogg
1108 52:49 Carl Heap
1135 53:17 David Walton
1290 55:34 Chip Hamer
1362 56:41 Russell Weston
1626 66:26 Hassan Nahal
1,688 finishers
28th (2153) team out of 125 in 6 to score category
25th (4098) team out of 62 in 9 to score category