Cambridge Half, Thames Meander, Chingford League and NWLL
Lots of action this week from the last League XC, Indoor and a number of major road races.
Chingford League
Congratulations to Sam Macaulay who was crowned Chingford League Senior Men’s Champion. The league rapped up with a series of road relays at Wansted Flats. The men finished 3rd in the Division 2 and the women 6th.
Chingford League Relays, Wansted Flats, 8.3.25
Senior Men
1st Woodford Green & Essex Ladies 45:24
7th London Heathside 47:41 (Andy Barnes 11:07, Harry Owrid 12:16, Hugo Cox 13:06, Sam Macaulay 11:12)
NWLL 5#, Brent Country Park, 1.3.25
A good number of young Heathsiders took part in the last North West London XC League race hosted at a sunny Brent Country Park by Ealing Eagles. Individual performance highlights included a 1st place for Filip Kounoupas-Prastalo (U13B) and 2nd places for Edith Deakin (U13G) and Sam Turner (U17M). There were team wins for the U17 Men and 3rd place for the U13 Girls.
The results confirmed Londopn Heathside as both overall Champions for both Boys and Girls.
U11 Girls (2,000m 38 finishers)
1st S Davies (TVH) 7:01
18th Anna Bah 8:21
26th A Dhanjal 8:49
29th E Wallis 8:59
36th E Schofield 9:34
37th M Haward 10:49
Team:- 1st WSE&H 22 pts, 7th London Heathside 91 pts
U11 Boys (2,000m 55 finishers)
1st M McDonald (Dacorum) 6:45
13th M Schofield 7:25
26th R Wilcox 8:07
33rd J Ferguson Bentley 8:16
34th D Talbot 8:17
37th I Belyoung 8:29
38th F Meyer 8:31
39th H Ferriman 8:31
45th Dominic Jeles 8:46
51st A Talwar 9:17
Team:- 1st SBH 19 pts, 7th London Heathside 106 pts, 11th London Heathside B 159 pts
U13 Girls (3,000m 32 finishers)
1st C Cooper (Barnet) 11:26
2nd Edith Deakin 11:55
8th Matilda Hinson 12:29
21st Serena Baker 13:06
Team:- 1st ESM 34 pts, 3rd London Heathside 64 pts
U13 Boys (3,000m 39 finishers)
1st Filip Kounoupas-Prastalo 10:33
20th Alex Rankin 12:01
30th D Lewis 12:41
37th William Edwards 13:21
Team:- 1st WSE&H 39 pts, 5th London Heathside 88 pts
U15 Girls (3,800m 32 finishers)
1st A Johnson (ESM) 13:27
17th R Schofield 15:52
22nd Lara Davies 16:19
23rd Vera Vasquez 16:23
30th C Hayward 20:22
Team:- 1st Harrow 36 pts, 5th London Heathside 92 pts
U15 Boys (3,800m 27 finishers)
1st A Falkowski (Trent Park) 12:19
5th Ennio Kaloukian 12:42
12th Joe Skelsey 13:32
Team:- 1st Highgate 33 pts, 5th London Heathside 73 pts
U17 Women (5,000m 8 Finishers)
1st L Delvebdahl (Highgate) 20:37
5th Mina Schofield 24:22
Team:- 1st Highgate 17 pts, 4th London Heathside 32 pts
U17 Men (5,000m 19 Finishers)
1st I Metzey (ESM) 16:53
2nd Sam Turner 18:03
3rd Dylan Mills 18:08
4th E Sileshi 18:43
10th Tam Mergia 19:28
Team:- 1st London Heathside 22 pts
EA Age Group Combined Event Championships Sheffield 8-9.
Adrian Day reports:- Despite being 66 I was the only Heathsider competing at the U17 /U15 Age Group Indoor Combined Event champs in Sheffield this weekend. OK that’s not quite true; this year England Athletics trialled inviting some of the highest ranking masters to take part in 200m and 800m races (as there is some spare track time whilst the teenagers’ field events are in play). It was a ‘last minute’ idea so only a few masters were able to go at short notice (and the cut-off was a somewhat random 70 years which meant sadly our highest age graded athlete Adrian Essex wasn’t invited). I ran in the M65 200m and came second with a best indoor time for 5 years of 28.88. But I was way behind winner (and world champion) John Wright who broke the European record in 25.38 (yup he’s 65). Ricky Huskisson finished in front of me and was unlucky to be DSQ. Most of the appreciative crowd (mainly friends and family of the teenagers) had never seen masters compete and certainly not masters much older than the youth’s parents. Hopefully this trial will lead to a fuller programme next year including 70+ - and perhaps masters competing at one of the outdoor events.
Thames Meander Marathon, 9.3.25
Gavin Evans reports:- Five Heathsiders ran in the off-road Thames Meander Marathon on Sunday – four of them as a pre-Comrades tune-up.
The race took place on a warm early Spring day (17 degrees) and was run up and back, four times, on the Thames from Richmond (which meant eight 3.15m legs, seven U-bend turns and 16 bridges). We had to compete with half marathoners, 10k runners, walkers, dogs and cyclists but despite this it was a fun, well-organised event.
Ben Jacobs, who was having his last race before his baby arrives, was second in 2:59:17, Sarah Swinhoe was the first woman and third finisher in 3:06:23, Gavin Evans was the first V60 in 3:17:03 and Tony Shearer was the first V40 in 3:21:36. Alex Sweet had a coccyx skiing injury, which made running painful, so he stopped after 13.1 km.
Sarah and Gavin chose not to taper significantly for the race so as not to miss out on too much Comrades training and Tony, who already had his qualifier in the bag, did no tapering at all. Sarah and Gavin needed to get sub-3:20, which didn’t prove too difficult.
Results
2nd Ben Jacobs – 2:59:17
3rd Sarah Swinhoe – 3:06:23 (1st woman)
10th Gavin Evans – 3:17:03 (1st V60)
18th Tony Shearer – 3:21:38 (1st V40)
Cambridge Half marathon, Cambridge 9.3.25
15th Tseguy Berhanes 1:09.08
129th Christopher Gracie 1:15.59
138th Isaac Edwards 1:16.23
139th Jose Sabroso 1:16.24
220th Sammy Keenan 1:18.39
233rd Daniel Lee 1:18.56
254th Kwasi Agyei Owusu (V40) 1:19.27
277th Kazuya Saito 1:19.50
280th Ben Williams 1:20.06
313th Jake Spencer 1:20.46
385th Jessica Prior 1:21.55
391st Peter Gould 1:22.03
449th Daniel Johns (V45) 1:22.53
487th Matt Beard (V55) 1:23.22
563rd Francesca Stocco 1:24.40
568th Chloe Wilkinson 1:24.43
570th George Sutton 1:24.40
663rd Jonathan Shipley (V45) 1:25.54
752nd Peter Darwin (V45) 1:27.03
933rd Fred Howarth 1:29.10
984th Matthew Cartledge 1:29.39
1018th Alex Straight 1:29.49
1053rd Kate Hawkshaw 1:30.08
1544th Jamie Morris (V45) 1:34.47
1078th Benjamin Hall 1:30.26
1130 Rebecca Walker 1:31.03
1617th Holly Fenton 1:35,21
1731st Ella Inwald 1:36.09
1775th Serena Baker 1:36.27
2180th Neil Thomas 1:39.28
2612nd Benjamin Cliff 1:42.22
13,572 finishers
Kingston Break-fact Run, Kingston 9.3.25
(20 miles 879 finishers)
1st G Grassly 1:46.28
144th Charlotte Mclean 2:36.31 (30th SW)
Run-Through Victoria Park, Victoria Park, 9.3.25
1st J Campbell (Clapham Chasers) 1:11.31
15th Joe Bonfield 1:19.47
24th Harry Abnell 1:22.08
(806 fnishers)
Run Through Battersea, Battersea Park 8.3.25
1st L Greer (Unattch) 1:08.07
81st Filipe Cardoso 1:24.01
96th Spenser Baker 1:25.17
142nd Pep Pamies 1:28.16
Paddock Wood Half Marathon, Paddock Wood 9.3.25
1st C Gibbens (Tonbridge) 1:05.0
70th Scott Coller 1:25.25
Parkrun
Ninety five Heathsiders ran in parkrun last Saturday. Congratulations for first place finishes go to: Tom Hollis (Old Showfield 17:31), Eric Beale (Ally Pally 18:09), Monika Newton (Gdynia 19:18) and Rebecca Piggott (Finsbury 19:51).
Full results can be found here.
Compiled by Simon Baker, Adrian Day and Gavin Evans