Southern XC Champs: large Heathside turnout tackles Parliament Hill

This week's running mainly centred around one of the longest cross country meets of the year at the Southern Championships, back at our very own Parliament Hill this year. More on that below along with news of some indoor action and club records as well as some speedy times at Hyde Park over 5k and 10k.

SEAA Southern Cross Country Championships, Parliament Hill, Saturday 28th Jan

One of the highlights of the cross country season took place last weekend and while the mud may not have been quite as bad as in recent years, the eponymous hills were as evident as ever on our favourite, gruelling north London course. The standard of field in every age group was also as strong as always and while there were no prizes forthcoming, Heathside enjoyed a successful day across all age groups. Not for the first time, the Women led by example as their first 4 finishers secured a fantastic 5th position. Ella Waldman was first home with an amazing top 20 finish, Kelly Thorneycroft was a few places behind and Sarah Swinhoe and Ula Cartwright-Finch ran strongly to bag the scoring spots.

Individually, there were great runs elsewhere for Ruairi McGonanagle who was 20th in the u-13s, while Liam Garrett was the highest finishing Heathsider on the day as he came 19th in the u-17s. Jem O’Flaherty wasn’t far behind in 31st and also seems to have finished the race twice according to the results, which is perhaps even more impressive. Also spare a thought for the Heathsider, who shall remain nameless, but would have finished 20th in the u-20s…had he not forgotten his chip!

In the men’s event Tom Aldred was of course first home in 31st (rather harshly described by the man himself as a ‘crap race’) while there were great runs from Olivier Le Polain and Richard Macauley, who continues to impress over every distance and surface. Further back there were some great mini-races, especially between Steve, Stuart, Marco and Jake who were separated by just 8 seconds – it wasn’t at all disheartening to watch the whole of that battle being played out 150m ahead of me and not managing to join in.

As the cross country season winds down to its finale, attention turns to next weekend’s ‘Dirty Double’: our home Met League fixture at Ally Pally on the 11th and the Sunday League meet at Royston – get those spikes under the hose and see you there!

Serpentine Last Friday of the Month, Hyde Park, Friday 27th Jan

6 Heathsiders at this great monthly event, led home by Andrew Brooker who took 3rd place with a time a sliver over 16 minutes. Coach Jacob was next home and reportedly pleased with his 18:03 while there were good performances from Mark George, Leo Pemberton, Alun Nash and Gabi Johnson.

London Indoor Games, Lee Valley, Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th Jan

Tony Killilea has done a nice chunk of this week’s write up for me by reporting back from the warmer, less muddy London Indoor Games that took place at Lee Valley last weekend.

“Despite the name this competition attracted athletes from all corners of England; from Plymouth to Norwich, from Brighton to Manchester; and also a sprinkling of overseas competitors. It was wonderful to see this fantastic venue packed with athletes, spectators and great action. A few Heathsiders competed in a range of events over the weekend, with some impressive results.

Gokce Baydar improved her own W35 club long jump record, while Rosa Serafini established a club record in the 800m. There is a raft of indoor Heathside women’s records available; hopefully some will see the chance to immortalise themselves before the season is out.

Meanwhile Naomi Conlon continued her impressive winter with a PB in the 400m, and Darnell Plummer sprinted consistently well over two rounds of 60m.”

Royal Parks Winter 10k, Hyde Park, Sunday 29th Jan

A rather exhausting weekend for the pathways of Hyde Park (there was another race on the Saturday) was capped off by Joe McKeown who powered his way to a top 10 finish and walloped a full minute off his PB in the process. Gregg McLeod also ran.

Parkruns

First finishes this week for Andrew Brooker, who put in his second impressive 16 minutes something time in 24 hours at Richmond, while Lauren Hendry went across the Channel and was 1st female at parkrun du Montsouris (feels slightly uncharitable to point out there were only 2 women running but I’ve done it now). Full results here:

http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=2017&eventdate=2016-04-23

Full classified results:

SEAA Southern Cross Country Championships, Parliament Hill  

Under 13 Girls

52nd Rose Garrett 0:13:06

80th Nel Swinhoe 0:13:26

171st Lorna Dumbleton 0:14:19

Under 13 Boys

20st Ruairi McGonagle 0:11:37

139th Oliver O'Connor 0:12:42

211st Jack Davis-Black 0:13:22

249th Lucas Maher 0:13:46

262nd Kit Naylor 0:13:58

Under 15 Girls

208th Evelyn Dumbleton 0:21:02

224th Ella Conlon 0:21:40

Under 15 Boys

246th Stan Brown 0:18:54

282nd Lewis Selwyn 0:20:49

Under 17 Girls

96th Meg Naylor 0:24:19

117th Lily McKay 0:25:19

141st Phoebe Crockford 0:26:38

159th Anna McAllister 0:29:26

Under 17 Boys

19th Liam Garrett 0:20:22

31st Jem O'Flaherty 0:20:41

168th Jem O'Flaherty (?) 0:24:32

Under 20 Women

47th Genevieve Weston 0:26:55

Under 20 Men

61st William Griffiths 0:30:51

68th Jacob Phillips 0:31:12

Senior Women

20th Ella Waldman 0:31:29

29th Kelly Thorneycroft 0:31:58

82nd Sarah Swinhoe 0:34:11

95th Ula Cartwright-Finch 0:34:44

117th Josie Hinton 0:35:28

158th Emma Ford 0:36:40

167th Sara Black 0:36:59

172nd Satu Hietanen 0:37:06

197th Colette Monahan 0:37:43

276th Louisa Pointon 0:39:33

288th Jo Irwin 0:39:51

297th Jackie Wastell 0:40:12

323rd Jessica Vinluan 0:41:06

354th Kim Butler 0:42:18

361st Elspeth Storrar 0:42:39

374th Katherine Vinnicombe 0:43:09

411st Natalie Shoham 0:44:13

477th Samantha Chapman 0:47:07

502nd Ann Woulfe 0:48:19

Senior Men

31st Tom Aldred 0:51:53

118th Olivier Le Polain 0:55:27

161st Richard Macaulay 0:56:25

167th Kimon Doulis 0:56:40

229th Simon Brown 0:58:08

230th Dan McKeown 0:58:09

243rd Simon Dunderdale 0:58:29

253rd Tom Livermore 0:58:36

276th Andy Barnes 0:59:09

288th Peter Northall 0:59:22

301st Tom Fancett 0:59:31

369th Paul Mercer 1:00:53

375th Jonathan Litchfield 1:01:02

395th Mark Anderson 1:01:22

403rd Chris Hartley 1:01:31

404th Adam Mitchell 1:01:31

410th Michael Heaney 1:01:39

421st Luke Wynne 1:01:58

423rd John Driscoll 1:02:00

431st Richard Taylor 1:02:13

445th Pete Bakewell 1:02:26

461st Steve Armstrong 1:02:41

463rd Stuart Meiklejohn 1:02:42

464th Marco Luna 1:02:42

469th Jake Spencer 1:02:47

493rd Gareth Marshall 1:03:13

499th Matt Collins 1:03:29

546th Lee Connor 1:04:42

553rd Phil Hogg 1:04:57

565th Mark Bailey 1:05:09

572th Dominic Jackson 1:05:17

592nd Francois Barou 1:05:46

601st Sam Thompson 1:06:00

603rd David Fallon 1:06:07

606th Rajiv Ratan 1:06:12

615th Paul Tonkinson 1:06:29

621st Benjamin Jenks 1:06:43

638th Jonathan Hopkin 1:07:05

667th James Rigby 1:07:49

697th Nick Haward 1:08:29

703rd Luka Melon 1:08:37

780th Esa Valtanen 1:10:57

791st (Not Gavin Evans) 1:11:04

863rd Justin Costley 1:13:09

924th Marco Maserati 1:15:04

956th Nick De Sausmarez 1:16:25

965th Tim Sander 1:17:09

969th Chip Hamer 1:17:23

1027th Greg Bell 1:23:48

1043rd Conor Forbes 1:25:47

1054th Ben Montilla 1:27:25

Serpentine Last Friday of the Month, Hyde Park

3rd Andrew Brooker 16:02

22nd Jacob Howe 18:03

73rd Mark George 19:48

103rd Leo Pemberton 20:52

149th Alun Nash 22:29

177th Gabi Johnson 23:56

London Indoor Games, Lee Valley

60m Darnell Plumber 7.60 (round 1); 7.57 (round 2)

400m U-20W Naomi Conlon 68.26 (PB)

400m Senior Men Tony Killilea 61.38

800m Senior Women Rosa Serafini 2:33.62 – Club record

Long Jump Senior Women Gokce Baydar 4.28m – W35 Club record

Royal Parks Winter 10k, Hyde Park

8th Joe McKeown 37:40 (PB)

217th Gregg McLeod 49:46