Wormwood Scrubs

Middlesex Cross Country Champs - 14/1/06

Heathside won our first silverware of 2006 with an excellent victory by our women in the Middlesex Cross Country Champs, comfortably retaining the trophy they had taken the previous year. It was almost a double victory, with Jo (pictured on the home page) in a battle for 1st place throughout until finally being shaken off in the last mile, while Anna (above, left) completed the full set of medals by coming home in clear 3rd place. There were great runs too for the other team members, with Angela (above, right) making it difficult to believe that she really hates Cross Country and Katie, running over a distance way beyond her preferred 800 Metres, putting her foot down in the last mile to take a few extra places. Below the scoring 4 Felicity in particular had an excellent race, the extra distance clearly suiting her, and had 'B' teams been allowed to count ours would have finished 5th. 

Earlier Ella had almost won the first Heathside medal of the day, a storming finish leaving her just 2 seconds off the 3rd finisher in her race. At least she should have the consolation of being picked for the Inter Counties however. Iskander too had looked in with a shout in the first half of his race, though he faded towards the end, while Jamie also had a very good run and is showing increasing potential. It was a shame that Efrem wasn't there however, as the Under 17 race was won by the same person who had just edged him out the previous week, so another close battle could have been expected. 

The final race was the Men's and that wasn't quite so successful for Heathside, though more because the standard was considerably higher than the previous 2 years than because of any failings of our own. I for instance ran 1 minute faster than over the same course last year, in only slightly faster conditions, but finished 5 places lower. It was good to see Urban return to Cross Country after his injury woes, while Andy W was another to have a particularly encouraging run. Sadly we just missed out on the 12 to score prize, just 1 more runner in the top 90 would have secured those medals. Results as follows: 

Middlesex Cross Country Championships, Wormwood Scrubs, 14/1/06: 

Under 15 Girls (4K): 

4th Ella Waldman  17m 54s 

25 finishers in all 

Under 15 Boys (4K): 

16th Jamie Smith  16m 49s 

28th David Mobbs  18m 05s 

39 finishers in all 

Under 20 Men (6K): 

8th Iskander Ibrahim  22m 28s 

11 finishers in all 

Senior Women (8K): 

2nd Jo King  29m 59s 

3rd Anna Critchlow  30m 22s 

6th Angela Howe  30m 42s 

12th Katie Meredith  32m 26s 

21st Jackie Wastell  33m 35s 

27th Claire Stokes  34m 46s 

28th Felicity Smith  34m 54s 

31st Jackie Watt  35m 10s 

39th Fiona Holland  37m 10s 

60 finishers in all 

Team results (4 to score): 

1st London Heathside 23 

2nd Highgate  38 

3rd Ealing  53 

Senior Men (12K): 

22nd Martin Potter  42m 57s 

27th Paul Lemmon  43m 42s 

39th Andy Welshman 44m 43s 

49th Urban Bettag  45m 36s 

52nd John Flahive  45m 46s 

60th Norman Mitchell  46m 25s 

67th Julian Ferraro  47m 08s 

80th Mark Cody  48m 36s 

82nd Eddie Bayne  48m 49s 

100th Chip Hamer  50m 22s 

101st Andy Owen  50m 24s 

108th Alan Dickson  51m 15s 

111th Bill Birmingham  52m 00s 

150th Laurence Steinpress 65m 01s 

153 finishers in all 

Team results (6 to score): 

1st Highgate  115 

2nd Thames Valley  142 

3rd Harrow  192 

5th London Heathside 249 

12 to score (top 3 overall not eligible): 

1st Hillingdon  770 

2nd London Heathside 787