Victory for Heathside ladies in Welwyn Garden City

Saturday saw a huge turnout for the much-anticipated cross-country race in Welwyn Garden City, the second in the Met league and the first of the weekend’s races.  One hundred and thirty one Heathsiders ran, with fantastic performances from everyone, particularly the juniors, and senior ladies.  The following is Captain Sarah Swinhoe’s report from the day.

Captain Sarah Swinhoe’s race report: Met  League 2, Welwyn Garden City, Saturday 11th December 2017

Firstly, thank you to everyone that turned up to run on the new course in WGC. We had a huge men and women’s team and there was a super-strong Heathside presence.  An especially big thank you to all the new runners who turned up:  your efforts were appreciated and make sure that you have Saturday 2nd December (Uxbridge) firmly written into your Christmas diary. We need you!!

The feedback about the new course  has been  generally positive but I’m not sure that’s due to the course being  slightly more interesting than running around a football pitch in Stevenage or a genuine love of the new territory. The men’s race , with a record number of  529. seemed too big to fit through  the early bottle neck and I know that some runners were forced to walk in the early stages of the race. The numbers were increased by Cambridge University runners joining the race (for some reason that I cannot remember at the time of writing).  The toilets, playground and coffee stall were a great addition though and particularly appreciated by spectators.

The Juniors are continuing to be a force to be reckoned with and I strongly urge anyone who has the spare time on a Saturday morning to get to the race early enough to watch at least some of the Junior races. In the U11 Girl’s race Hattie Munday was first home for LH but reported that she had tired legs form playing Tag Rugby only a couple of days before. Spike Blake was 4th in the U13 boys and looked really strong throughout the whole race and I’m certain that a top 3 place is not far off for him. Lorna Dumbleton ran a fantastic race to finish 3rd in the U13 girls.

The Junior  girl’s race (u15 and 17 running together) was really exciting, with Rose Garrett leading in parts and in the words of the Chairman was ‘bossing the race.’ The race started too slowly for her and rather than hang around she decided to take the race on.  She finished 3rd and was pleased with her efforts. Slightly further down the field Mimi Blake and Nell Swinhoe both had very strong performances and worked together to chip away at the  opposition. Mimi finished  5th, with Nell only 1 second behind in 6th place. The Junior girl’s team finished in 2nd place on the day (way ahead of H*ghgate)  and should feel very pleased with their individual and team performances. They are currently in 2nd place in the league.

The junior men’s race was more  Heathside domination, with 2 LH runners  in the top 3, and I’m sure that Liam Garrett will be  delighted to come home in 2nd place, 6 seconds ahead of Gem O’Flaherty in 3rd. Ruari McGonagle came home in a very respectable 7th place. Fantastic running and the boys  are currently in 2nd place after 2 races. This is going to be a very exciting season.

The women’s race felt quite ‘busy’ , with 249 runners, although there was a noticeable absence of some of our friends in N London.

There were some great individual performances on the day but everyone should be thanked for turning up and helping the women’s team secure first place on the day and jumping us into 1st position in the competition after 2 races. It is worth mentioning that the Vets team is only 2 points off the leaders so we could be looking at gold all round if we keep up the momentum. Everyone’s efforts do really count.

Rebecca Piggott ran an absolutely stormer of a race -  both perfectly timed and executed -  to come home first for LH in 6th place, with Ella Waldman 6 seconds behind in 8th place. I’m sure that there will be lots of future battles between these two but we all know that the key battles are to be fought against the other teams.  Josie Hinton, still recovering from her sub-3 marathon 4 weeks ago had another strong race and Olivia Desborough also had a great race coming home 5th for Heathside and securing a place in the A team.  Rebecca Bunting, clearly recovering her form, had a good race but was disappointed to learn that it was 3 laps instead of 2. It was great to see  a previous LH Xc Captain, Cathy Jeremiah, back in her Heathside colours and Rachel Seckl too, who is determinedly making her way back to fitness.

 Kelly Thorneycroft was not able to run on the day but was there, cheering / yelling and will be back to full fitness by Saturday. The women’s team is looking so strong this season and we really could be in with a chance of winning something special but enough of that for now. We need you all to prioritise the Met Leagues( Saturday 2nd December) and come out and run for LH.

The men’s race was absolutely massive and the numbers could  barely fit on the start – line. My reliable source tells me that there were a record number of 529 men, swelled by the surge of the Cambridge runners, who couldn’t quite follow the race etiquette of starting behind the starting line. The standard of runners seems to be getting better and better and to finish in the top 100 definitely marks you out as a quality cross country runner.  Cambridge University had 20 runners in the top 100 which obviously had a knock-on effect to our team.

Tom Aldred was first back for LH in 36th place, most likely still having some of the marathon effort in his legs. Tom worked his way through the field after getting stuck behind the surge at the start, making it impossible for him to get properly stuck in  to the race early on. Kimon Doulis ran a brilliant race and seems, for a man who doesn’t like racing, to be going from strength to strength, finishing in 67th place. Top 40 next time, please.  Peter Northall , had another excellent run, coming home 3rd for LH in 94th place. He is a great addition to the team. David Hellard managed to not only have a wardrobe delivered in the morning but also run a very strong race, finishing in 117th place and happy I’m sure to finish ahead of Rich McCauley, a strong XC runner,  in 121st. Rich, no doubt, missing the big downhills which he excels at. Daniel Johns also deserves a mention for another quality performance, which put him as 6th V40 and 169th and Andy Barnes, returning from injury, should be pleased with a strong run, indicating a return to form is not far off.  Ed Samuels secured a place in the A team too and had a much –improved run on Claybury and I’m sure is very pleased with his post-injury progress, as will Matt Collins, who out in another good run. 

The father and son run of the day goes to Antanis and Russell Weston this time (although there was also a Liam and Ed Garrett combination but not in the same race) with Antanis coming home 10 minutes ahead of his Dad.

Asmelash Arbra, aka , Ash should be delighted with his excellent performance, finishing 2nd V55, showing some excellent XC running, although the results suggest that he may have lost the 3-way battle between him, Matt Cockerill 255th, Mark Anderson 256th and Ash 257th. Luka Melon and his melon shorts need to be acknowledged too. The  award for the most committed runner on the day, however, goes to Charles Redfern, who was in hospital having a minor procedure in the morning and in his LH running vest in the afternoon. Charles, we salute you.

The men finished 6thteam on the day and still have a lot of work to do if they are to finish in their target of 4th place but everyone who turned up should be thanked for their committed running.

Results

Under 11 Boys Race                       

16th Benji Bediako 7:22

Under 11 Girls Race                       

10th Hattie Munday 7:18

26th Rebecca Beliossi 8:03

43rd Amara Odeogberin 8:49

51st Eloise Dark 9:25

Under 13 Boys Results                  

4th Spike Blake 11:02

12th Stan Hasson 11:25

20th Max Deasy 11:48

29th Arthur Reed 12:14

Under 13 Girls Results                  

3rd Lorna Dumbleton 12:32

18th Ella O'Flaherty 13:31

44th Fabienne Weston 15:56

Junior Men Results                        

2nd Liam Garrett 13:13

3rd Jem O'Flaherty 13:19

16th Ruairi McGonagle 14:36

27th Jake Evans 14:54

36th Oliver O'Connor 15:26

64th Kit Naylor 16:49

Junior Women’s Results                             

4th Rose Garrett 15:56

11th Mimi Blake 16:20

12th Nell Swinhoe 16:21

22nd Matilda Heath 16:44

26th Meg Naylor 16:57

36th Lily McKay 17:45

38th Evelyn Dumbleton 17:58

44th Ella Conlon 18:19

51st Martina Curcia 19:07

52nd Phoebe Crockford 19:11

Womens Race Results (6km)

6              Rebecca Piggott 22:43

8              Ella Waldman 22:49

29           Josie Hinton 23:56

33           Sarah Swinhoe 24:25

34           Olivia Desborough 24:28

37           Rebecca Bunting 24:47

45           Sue Rust 25:07

63           Emily Reichert 25:53

67           Lily Woolcock 26:01

70           Yanna Raykov 26:15

71           Satu Hietanen 26:21

82           Emma Watson 26:37

87           Hannah Stanforth 26:52

88           Chiara Borg 26:53

92           Genevieve Weston 27:00

96           Hannah Fenn 27:03

97           Jennifer Wing 27:03

99           Marie Howard 27:04

102         Tara Shrestha-Carney 27:06

109         Monika Newton 27:17

117         Sarah Taylor 27:41

124         Emilia Vynnycky 28:02

128         Jaqueline Wastell 28:14

146         Caroline White 29:03

150         Ruth Miller 29:20

164         Heather Marshall 29:45

166         Sarah Duke 29:50

173         Rachel Seckl 30:13

179         Edyta Szot 30:37

180         Cathy Jeremiah 30:37

190         Kimberli Butler 31:14

192         Hannah Jordan 31:22

193         Rachel Weston 31:28

216         Sara Dark 34:29

228         Laura Boothman 35:05

Men’s Race Results (8lm)

36           Tom Aldred 25:38

67           Kimon Doulis 26:31

94           Peter Northall 27:27

104         David Keto 27:38

105         Sion Lewis 27:43

117         David Hellard 27:54

121         Richard Macaulay 27:58

129         Daniel Johns 28:09

152         Joe Garrood 28:35

163         Alkher Adam 28:54

174         Andy Barnes 29:05

175         Edward Samuel 29:10

178         Jonathan Litchfield 29:13

184         Thomas Griffiths 29:21

185         Steve Armstrong 29:22

192         Chris Hartley 29:27

198         Martin Potter 29:38

206         Alex Hardy* 29:46

214         Matt Collins 29:51

217         Joseph McKeown 29:53

219         Paul Mercer 29:54

236         Adam Mitchell 30:10

238         Edward Adams 30:12

241         John Driscoll 30:16

242         Mark Jefford 30:16

244         Edward Garrett 30:22

249         Stuart Meiklejohn 30:31

252         Dominic Jackson 30:36

255         Matthew Cockerill 30:41

256         Mark Anderson 30:42

257         Asmelash Abrha 30:42

263         Antanas Weston 30:51

267         Leonard Martin 31:00

268         Natan Doron 31:02

273         Jonathan Shipley 31:08

277         Joseph Barker 31:13

280         Alex Sweet 31:16

282         Andrew Prystawski 31:21

302         Gavin Evans 32:00

303         Christopher Vincent 32:02

312         David Fallon 32:13

313         Pete Crockford 32:13

314         Jacob Howe 32:16

321         Jake Spencer 32:31

329         Rob Shulman 32:54

348         Marco Maserati 33:14

352         James McBride 33:23

354         Luka Melon 33:27

361         Henry Hamilton-Gould  33:40

365         Kris Milovsorov 33:44

366         Laurence Arnold 33:46

372         Liam Hazleton 33:51

377         Richard Peachment 33:56

385         Tony Killilea 34:12

389         Roger Wagland 34:17

394         James Dark 34:25

406         Etienne Foure 35:01

419         Andrew Johnston 35:13

436         Jamie Smith 36:01

438         Callum Foden 36:04

444         Carl Heap 36:09

448         Steve Jones 36:22

459         Alun Nash 36:40

464         Shaan Haque 36:56

468         Charles Redfearn 37:14

494         Norman Mitchell 39:29

504         Russell Weston 40:27

512         Ken Townson 41:33