Sweet as a Nut!
The Weekend's Action took us to the squelching mud of Wormwood Scrubs where Heathside mauled the opposition in most of the races at the Middx XC. Meanwhile, in Viccy Park, Alex Sweet pressed his Turbo Boost button to deliver a quite astonishing performance in the Half Marathon.
Run Through Half Marathon - Victoria Park - Sat 4th Jan
Alex Sweet, fresh off the back of superfast 10k PB the previous week, delivered the finest run of his glittering career, turning in a huge 4 minute PB to take 3rd overall in a race that he ended up finishing quite close to the winner. In addition to the glory of the trophy and the podium place, his remarkable time of 1 hour 14 mins 51 secs was enough to earn a Championship Entry Bib at the London Marathon. Kudos to the big man!
Other Heathsiders Glen Taylor and Gwyneth Harrison-Shermoen also performed very on the day to take their PBs.
Results:
3rd Alex Sweet 01:14:51 PB
81st Glen Taylor 01:37:32 PB
251st Gwyneth Harrison-Shermoen 02:02:24 PB
Middlesex AA XC Championships - Wormwood Scrubs - Sat 4th Jan
A sunny Wormwood Scrubs played host to the 2020 Middlesex Cross Country Championships. The ground was soft but the recent dry spell had helped firm up most of the course but the northern section remained muddy with some standing water making the going hard. The day belonged to Highgate Harriers who one 6 team titles, we had a pretty successful afternoon wining the U15 Boys and U17 men titles with 2nd places in the U11 Girls, U13 Boys, U17 Women and Senior Men plus 3rd place for the Senior Women. Individually Seyfu Jamal won the U20 Mens title with 2nd places for Ben Redland (U11G), Kiara Corkin (U11G), Thomas Archer (U17M), Mimi Blake (U17W) and Jem O’Flaherty (U20M) with 10 other top 10 performances.
The U11 Boys kicked off proceedings and another epic tussle between Ben Redland and Arthur Phillips unfolded with the SBH runner just holding Ben off but with a much reduced margin than at Uxbridge. They are joint 1st in the Met League so Ben will be looking to turn the order around at Ally Pally next week. Sam Turner produced a great run to finish 6th, unfortunately illness and injury mean’t we did not have 3 runners to qualify for the team competition. The U11 Girls race followed the path of all the Met League races this year with Kiara Corkin finishing 2nd behind Posie Shaw of SBH and so adds a silver medal to her Middlesex Road Race Gold. Plaudits go out to Lettice Gundry who felt ill on the line but raced and was promptly sick on completing her race but with Elkie Baker ensured the team finished 2nd overall and all received silver medals.
The U13 Boys race was highly competitive and the Boys were unable to retain their title despite a superb 4th place by Tynan Parker who earn’t a place in the Middlesex team for the intercounties race. Ivor Joslin followed 20s later in 7th with Benjy Bediako 11th and securing 2nd place just 5 points behind winners Highgate. Kamran Bakshi and Gregory Berrisford-Sweet completed the team finishing together in 27/28th places. The U13 Girls team was well represented but agonisingly finished in 4th place missing out on a medal. Hattie Munday was first home in 8th with Izzy Watkins just behind in 11th and new club member Ruby Walls a creditable 15th. Lucy Corkin, Amara Odeogberin and Milly Watkins all produced good runs in the tough conditions.
Our first team victory came in the U15 Boys with superb packing by the team saw Spike Blake, Jack Davis Black and Michael Smith finishing in 6th, 7th and 8th places to retain the Hornsey Cup they won last year. The team was completed by Bedo Draskoczy 18th, Stan Hasson 24th and Fred Beale 25th. In the U15’s Anna Pritchard continued her fine season with an 8th place with Lorna Dumbleton also a solid 26th, however with only two runners they didn’t qualify for the team competition.
The U17 Women was run with the U20 Women and saw Mimi Blake who has gone from strength to strength this season finish third overall and 2nd U17 Evelyn Dumbleton was next home in 14th with Mia Manttan in 17th to secure 2nd place overall. The Mens equivalent race saw the best performances of the day with Seyfu Jamal who has been in great form adding the U20 Mens County title to his senior London title. Last years U20 champion Jem O’Flaherty produced another strong performance finishing 2nd. The U17 Men saw our second team victory with the team lead home by Tom Archer who secured 2nd place despite it being his first year in this age group, Jake Evans with 4th place and Oliver O’Connor in 10th completed the scoring team members with Ruairi McGonagle 15th and Sam Ingram 25th providing support.
In the Senior Womens race, we fielded a smaller team than usual with one eye on the Met League fixture next weekend and other big competitions coming up thick and fast. Olivea Desborough and Annabel Litchfield led the team superbly placing 12th and 16th respectively. Despite the smaller team the ladies still snagged a County Team Bronze medal.
In the Senior Mens race we had a slightly bigger team and they all ran super quick. with Charles, Kimon and Ewan all placing inside the top 20, this would be well enough to secure a County Team Silver Medal.
Middlesex AA XC Championships
Wormwood Scrubs
4th January 2020
U11 Boys
1500m, 28 runners
1st A Phillips (SBH) 5:31
2nd Ben Redland 5:34🏅
6th Sam Turner 6:04
1st Highgate 19 pts, No London Heathside Team
U11 Girls
1500m, 31 runners
1st P Shaw (SBH) 5:45
2nd Kiara Corkin 5:53🏅
21st Elkie Baker 7:08
25th Lettice Gundry 7:23
1st Highgate 21 pts, 2nd London Heathside 48 pts🏅
U13 Boys
3,000m, 42 runners
1st Z Jones (SBH) 11:28
4th Tynan Parker 11:57
7th Ivor Joslin 12:18
11th Benjy Bediako 12:32
27th Kamran Bakhshi 13:34
28th Gregory Berrisford-Sweet 13:35
1st Highgate 17 pts, 2nd London Heathside 22 pts🏅
U13 Girls
3,000m, 48 runners
1st A Abdirahman (Hill) 12:19
8th Hattie Munday 13:21
11th Issy Watkins 13:31
15th Ruby Walls 13:38
21st Lucy Corkin 14:00
31st Amara Odeogberin 14:34
32nd Milly Watkins 14:44
1st Highgate 17 pts, 4th London Heathside 34 pts
U15 Boys
4,000m, 30 runners
1st A Hamud (Hill) 14:29
6th Spike Blake 15:29
7th Jack Davis-Black 15:35
8th Michael Smith 15:36
18th Bedo Draskoczy 16:50
24th Stan Hasson 17:58
25th Fred Beale 18:21
1st London Heathside🏅
U15 Girls
4,000m, 40 runners
1st L Mannes (B&B) 16:34
8th Anna Pritchard 18:18
26th Lorna Dumbleton 20:02
1st Highgate 21 pts, No London Heathside Team
U17 Women
5,000m, 21 Runners
1st M Radus (SBH) 24:49
2nd Mimi Blake 25:10
14th Evelyn Dumbleton 29:04
17th Mia Manttan 30:47
1st SBH 16 pts, 2nd London Heathside 33 pts🏅
U17 Men
8,000m, 33 Runners
1st M Ali (ESM) 20:47
2nd Thomas Archer 21:04🏅
4th Jake Evans 22:06
10th Oliver O’Connor 23:25
15th Ruairi McGonagle 23:57
25th Sam Ingram 26:07
1st London Heathside 16 pts🏅
U20 Men
8,000m, 10 runners
1st Seyfu Jamal 20:27🏅
2nd Jem O’Flaherty 20:52🏅
No Team Competition
Senior Women
8,000m, 97 runners
1st G Jukntye (AFD) 33:45
12th Olivia Desborough 35:01
16th Annabel Litchfield 35:50
30th Laura Hunt 38:13
33rd Lily Woolcock 39:12
39th Ciera Kennedy 39:15
56th Ruth Miller 42:26
62nd Kimberli Butler 43:23
64th Jackie Wastell 43:40
1st TVH 27 pts, 3rd London Heathside 72 pts🏅
Senior Men
12,000m, 166 Runners
1st N Goolab (Belgrave) 41:14
11th Charles Hardy 44:30
17th Kimon Doulis 46:26
19th Ewan Gault 46:33
23rd Matthew Rallison 47:10
25th Peter Gould 47:21
36th Andy Barnes 48:46
45th Matthew Field 49:44
58th Joel Northcott 50:58
61st Steve Armstrong 50:58
67th Michael Cockings 52:00
72nd Chris Vincent 52:21
78th Matt Collins 52:51
82nd Rob Shulman 53:37
84th Dominic Jackson 53:46
87th Oliver Negus 54:00
88th Tom Haworth 54:06
89th Jonathan Litchfield 54:12
90th Tom Bedwell 54:15
107th Gordon Brady 57:06
111th Valentin Valeanu 57:57
113th Richard Peachment 58:04
116th Joseph McKeown 58:26
1st Highgate 53 pts, 2nd London Heathside 131 pts🏅
Parkruns
In Parkrunning, there were many great performances including wins for Louisa Pointon, Eilidh Wagstaff and Amy Cook.
https://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=2017&eventdate=2020-01-04
Report Compiled by Jim Connell with contributions from his lovely clubmates. Happy New Year All x