92 Heathsiders in weekend races

Five of our runners deserve special praise for their performances at the first weekend of December. Sue Rust had no trouble winning the women’s race at the Sorority Cup at Trent Park on Saturday and, among the men, Dan McKeown had an impressive ninth place in the Fraternity Cup. On the same day at the same park, Rachel Seckl came second (U17) and Lucy Carter third (U15) in the North West London Young Athletes League. Meanwhile Leigh James was the women’s winner at the Perivale 5 miler on Sunday, winning by half a minute and Dan Madams was the fourth man, despite having to stop to pick up the keys he’d dropped along the way.

Trent Park cross-country

Cross country team captain Chris Hartley reports there was a strong turnout on a cold and crisp at Trent Park Saturday afternoon. “The course was soft, but the race was relaxed and good fun, especially as the men and women got to race together,” he says.

“Sue Rust stormed home to win the women's race by quite some margin, showing the majority of the Heathside men a muddy pair of heels in the process. Supported by Elspeth Storrar and Claire Morrissey, Sue's effort steered the Women to second in the competition, with Barnet & District AC coming home first.

“For the men, a fired-up Dan McKeown shot-off to finish the race 9th, a way ahead of a very spirited run indeed from young Max Robertson, who will be setting the Senior Men's Met League on fire very soon. Miron Woldemichael, another very promising younger athlete, finished third for Heathside, with the other team scorers made up by Chris Hartley, John Flahive and Melvin Wachira. The Men, like the Women, finished second in the team competition, this time to winners Highgate.”

Chris adds that was a well organised, low key event with an enjoyable course (“nice cake at the award ceremony, too”) and a long and worthy heritage. “I'm sure Heathside will continue to support it over the coming years,” he adds.

North West London Young Athletes' League

Russell Weston reports that Heathside’s junior athletes had a successful day with good individual and team results at the NWLYAL at Trent Park.

He writes: “After the previous weeks quagmire it was good to get some more solid ground to run on. Cold and clear weather was also an improvement on the continual rain of the week before. Eight top ten finishes overall, with particularly good runs for Rachel Seckl(2nd under 17) and Lucy Carter (3rd under 15), and a great first run for Tamsin McKinnon whose 7th place resulted in that team maintaining their lead in the team race. Solid team performances in the two older female age groups means that we lead both the under 15 girls and under 17 Women team tables after 3 races. Johnny Naylor(5th under 15) and James Woolridge(3rd under 17) also once again had solid runs.”

Perivale 5-miler

A 21-strong pack of Heathsiders were enlivened by the crisp, clear, blue-skied conditions at Perivale on Sunday - or perhaps just by the thought that this was the final event of the road race season. Anyway, they put an astonishing collective showing. According to the running site Power of 10, 16 of our 21 finishers delivered PBs. That may have something to do with the fact that five milers are rare beasts these days, or it may be that Power of 10 has a short memory but it looks pretty impressive anyway, especially considering that we won the men’s and the women’s team prizes.

Dan Madams, who was recovering from a cold, came fourth out of 247 finishers with a respectable 27.44, but he would have come third had he not dropped his keys along the way, costing him about 15 seconds as he stopped to retrieve them. Gavin Evans and Jonathan Hopkin were the other team scorers.

Leigh James, who is maintaining her fine post-marathon form,  was the first woman home by a margin of 30 seconds in a PB of 31.08, a result that is even more impressive when you consider that she ran a cross country in Chiltern the day before. Catherine Jeremiah and Ursula Wilson helped the team home to first prize.

Jack Petchey Foundation awards

Coach Zac reports that Heathside athletes and coaches had their achievements recognised by the Jack Petchey Foundation at their annual awards ceremony on November 28. Those honoured included young athletes, Jacob Wilson, James Wooldridge, Daniel Szajna, Toby Buchan, Max Robertson, Andy Barrow, Mason Dietrich, Antanas Weston and coach Kabir Kemp.

Zac writes: “These London Heathside athletes have all showed commitment and improved
performances over the last year. Notably Jacob Wilson was the 2012 Bronze Medalist in the Under 20 Men's Long Jump, at the South of England Championships, and James Wooldridge won several Cross Country league races, and was the Middlesex County Bronze Medallist over the Under 17 Men's 800 Metres Heathside Coach Kabir Kemp received a Leaders award for his hard work over many years.”

Park Runs

Finally, our runners once again put in a brace of strong performances at the Park Runs on December 1, with Liam Proudlock deserving special mention for winning the hard and hilly Ally Pally event in 18.36 (out of 59 participants), while Rick Hewett did well to come third in 20:17. . But perhaps even more impressive was Kev Gadd’s second place out of 416 in the Brighton and Hove event in a time of 17.15.  Alex Galloway came third out of 89 in Finsbury Park (17.28).

North West London Young Athletes League, Trent Park, December 1

Under 11 Girls 1.4km

13th Rose Garrett 7.53

15th Ella Conlon 7.58

TEAM 6TH

Under 13 Girls 2.2km

12th Phoebe Crockford 12.52

15th Naomi Conlon 13.35

18th Isobel Harvey 13.53

TEAM 5TH

Under 15 Girls

3RD Lucy Carter 13.29

13th Genevieve Weston 14.30

14th Octavia Laidler 14.34

23rd Molly Harrison 15.35

31st K Land 21.16

TEAM 3rd

Under 17 Women 4.4km

2nd Rachel Seckl 18.45

7th Tamsin McKinnon 22.28

TEAM 2nd

Under 11 Boys

9th Tom Carter 11.55

16th Ollie Selby 12.23

TEAM 6th

Under 13 Boys

10th Liam Garrett 13.25

14th Luke Gray 13.44

15th Tom Mills 13.45

36th William Olney 16.51

TEAM 5th

Under 15 Boys

5th Johnny Naylor 16.16

27th Nelson Falco-Cordes 19.56

TEAM 7th

Under 17 Men

3rd James Woolridge 22.35

10th Conor O’Shea 27.20

TEAM 4th

Fraternity and Sorority Cup, Trent Park, December 1

Women

1st  31.02 Sue Rust (first woman)

3rd  32.39 Elsbeth Storrar

15th 36.51 Claire Morrisey

17th 37.15 Ursula Wilson

18th 37.17 Emma Grayson

20th 37.47 Ruth Miller

(39 finishers)

Men

9th 28.33 Dan MacKeown

16th 29.49 Miron Woldemichael

17th 29.50 Chris Hartley (3rd veteran)

22nd 30.34 John Flahive (4th veteran)

29th 31.01 Melvin Wachira

33rd 31.09 Stuart Mickelson

34th 31.16 Rob Shulman

37th 31.35 Dan Szajna

45th 32.35 Paul Mercer

47th 32.52 Pete Crockford

48th 33.01 Maro Luna

51st 33.18 Stuart Amblin

57th 33.52 Steve Armstrong

60th 34.16 Leo Pemberton

64th 35.12 Carl Heap

70th 35.44 Nick Sausuazez

76th 36.38 Nick Skipper

80th 37.51 Iziah Turner

87th 41.14 Ken Townsend

(94 finishers)

Perivale 5-mile, December 1 2012 – 247 finishers (PBs according to Power of 10)

4 Dan Madams – 27.44 (PB and 2nd V35)

9 Gavin Evans – 29.22 (PB and 1st V 50)

13 Jonathan Hopkin – 29.47 (PB and 1st V45)

17 Marcus Tillotson – 30.24

20 Dominic Jackson – 30.47 (PB and 2nd V45)

23 Leigh James – 31.08 (PB and first woman)

24 Trevor Wilson – 31:09 (PB)

36 Henry Andrews – 32.24

38 Mark George – 32.28 (PB)

49 Andrew Prystalisky – 31.13 (PB)

63 Catherine Jeremiah – 34.02 (PB)

75 Ursula Wilson - 34.55

83 Chris Hewertson – 35.10 (PB)

89  Gavin Parish – 35.48 (PB)

100 Jo Irwin - 36.41 

102 Robert Bowler – 36.48 (PB)

114 Sandra Buckton – 37.27 (PB)

128 Sarah Illingworth – 38.25

132 Gabi Johnson – 38.44 (PB)

136 Barbara Tomaszcyk – 38.49

203 Alice Parish – 45.41

Apex Sports Chiltern League Cross Country, Saturday December 1

12th Leigh James – 22.09

Park Runs, Saturday December 1

Results for Ally Pally parkrun (59 participants)

1 Liam PROUDLOCK 00:18:36

3 Richard HEWETT 00:20:17

5 Tom TABORI 00:20:55

33 Jeannine CASE 00:26:58

Results for Balyang Sanctuary parkrun (91 participants)

43 William T ROBERTS 00:24:35

Results for Brighton & Hove parkrun (416 participants)

2 Kev GADD 00:17:15

Results for Finsbury parkrun (89 participants)

3 Alex GALLOWAY 00:17:28

Results for Hampstead Heath parkrun (103 participants)

11 Brian BOYLE 00:21:01

49 Michiko THOMAS 00:25:45

Results for Highbury Fields parkrun (63 participants)

11 Brian HEFFERNAN 00:19:35

24 Jake Leon Justin LEE 00:21:26