London Heathside

[Paul Lemmon]

The Southern Champs were held in bright but cold conditions at Parliament Hill on Saturday. In the morning the ground was still hardened by frost and the younger runners were therefore able to run on unusually firm ground for much of the course, but by the time the later races took place the vast majority of the course had turned into the usual quagmire! Usual in most ways anyway, but unusual in that, for the senior men anyway, it was even longer and hillier than usual!

As mentioned before, the youngsters were first to run and the Under 13 Boys were clearly our best performers in the early races with 6 competitors and Max + Conor having a race to the line for the honour of being first home. If we can keep this group together as they move up through the age groups they could be a formidable force by the time they become seniors. The Under 15 Boys also finished a team and the Under 13 Girls weren’t far from doing so, though in both cases they tended to be a bit further down the field anyway.

After his excellent victory in the County Champs last week, all Heathside eyes were on Mehretab when the Under 20 Men’s race got under way. By the time he came past our ‘camp’ half way up the first hill he was in 2nd place and when he came back into view at the end of the first lap he had moved into a clear lead. As we listened to the commentary from out on the course however it became clear that he was being caught, but he held on for a magnificent 3rd place and Heathside’s first individual medal in the Southerns for a very long time. This was all the more impressive as he had complained of not feeling great before the race began, which perhaps explains why his second lap wasn’t as good as his first. Hopefully he will be fully recovered in time for the Watford Half Marathon on Sunday where he will be looking for victory.

In the women’s race it was Sue who led the Heathside contingent right from the start with Claire making a relatively steady start about 20-30 places behind. In the latter stages however Claire’s strength from her Marathon training showed and she overtook Sue in the latter stages to come home 8 seconds ahead. Behind them Mhairi’s swift improvement continued and gained her a place in the top 100 while Louise took the final place in the scoring team ahead of an ailing Jackie. It wasn’t only Jackie who felt ill however, with Susie having to stop to throw up mid-race then storming past 7 or 8 athletes in the final straight before promptly collapsing on the line and needing help from the St John’s guys. Don’t worry, she’s fine. The team performance in finishing 8th was excellent, particularly given the absence of Sarah, Jaimie and Tess for various reasons, all of whom could have made it even stronger.

It wasn’t such a great day for the men with too many of us still too far from full fitness after recent injuries etc. Martin had no such problems and had another excellent run to come close to the top 100, but a gap of nearly 3 minutes after him before Ed came in led to a slightly below par team result of 19th, despite John, Sergio, Norman and an injured Richard coming in close together to complete the 6. We fared rather better in the 12 to score event with the next 6 of us all close together during the middle lap, but Marcus reacted immediately to me briefly overtaking him at the half way stage to storm well clear, while Nick and David both overtook me close to the end in order to give me a perfect view of their private battle for 369th spot up the finishing straight! Thanks to everyone who was out supporting us, I hope you didn’t freeze. Results of this and of Nick and Claire’s warm up race the previous day as follows:

Last Friday of the Month 5k Road Race, Hyde Park, 29/01/10:
13th Nick Jellema 18m 09s
24th Claire Gibson 18m 46s (3rd woman)

South of England Cross Country Championships, Parliament Hill, 30/01/10:
Under 13 Girls (3k):
153rd Genevieve Weston 15m 33s
210th Harriet Mackinney 18m 21s
213th Ellen Bolger 18m 38s

219 finishers in all

Under 13 Boys (3k):
96th Max Robertson 13m 18s
97th Conor O’Shea 13m 18s
123rd Max Heap 13m 34s
129th Johnny Naylor 13m 48s
150th Jasper Crockford 14m 10s
206th Tom Gage 16m 30s

212 finishers in all. Team (4 to score) finished 22nd out of 34.

Under 15 Boys (4.5k):
153rd Miron Woldemichael 18m 45s
183rd Jordan Tompkins 19m 28s
196th Joe Silva 19m 42s
225th Renat Hammet-Millay 24m 34s

228 finishers in all. Team (4 to score) finished 28th out of 28.

Under 17 Men (6k):
188th Jamie Armstrong 29m 43s

189 finishers in all

Under 20 Men (8k):
3rd Mehretab Solomon 27m 26s

99 finishers in all

Senior Women (8k):
31st Claire Gibson 34m 20s
36th Sue Rust 34m 28s
86th Mhairi Mackenzie 36m 59s
105th Louise Waldman 37m 42s
145th Jackie Wastell 38m 46s
195th Ruth Miller 40m 56s
200th Jules Weall 41m 03s
232nd Ursula Wilson 42m 41s
261st Susie Brighton 44m 03s

357 finishers in all. Team (4 to score) finished 8th out of 38.

Senior Men (15k):
115th Martin Potter 59m 13s
202nd Ed Samuel 62m 09s
242nd John Flahive 63m 15s
244th Sergio Di Noto 63m 20s
249th Norman Mitchell 63m 38s
264th Richard Browne 64m 02s
319th Marcus Tillotson 65m 32s
369th David Bird 66m 49s
370th Nick Jellema 66m 51s
375th Paul Lemmon 67m 10s
386th Danny Jacobson 67m 39s
391st Gavin Evans 68m 08s
454th Pete Crockford 70m 18s
470th Robin Tremaine 70m 53s
47nth? Paul McCrossin 71m approx (arrived at last minute so ran round with no chip, therefore no official result)
570th Hassan Nahal 74m 46s
598th Carl Heap 76m 05s
604th Phil Hogg 76m 42s
704th Nik Skipper 83m 07s

806 finishers in all. Team (6 to score) finished 19th out of 54, 12 to score finished 10th out of 17.