Silver Medals at Southern Champs and Comrades marathon, win at Vets League

contents :

Southern T&F Championships ; U17, U15, & U13

Veterans League

Comrades Marathon

Speedy Steeds 5K

Watford Open

Parkruns

SEAA Southern U17, U15 & U13 T&F Championships Crystal Palace 7-8th June

Simon Baker reports from the SEAA AG Champs  ;                        

“ 17 Young Heathsiders headed to Crystal Palace for the Southern Championships held at the Iconic if not decrepit Crystal Palace.  Unlike FP the last minute track repairs were not ready resulting in only 5 lanes being available on the Saturday that combined the weather led to the program over running until 9.15 pm.

 The clubs athletes however secured a haul of 3 silver and 2 bronze medals as well as a host of PBs.  Of the U13 Girls Abena Boyer made the semi finals of the 100m and 200m as well as 70mH final.  In the U15s Cosmo and Myla made their semi-finals.  Gabriel Edwards secured a bronze in the 70mH while Charlie Nicolson negotiated the heats to return on Sunday and take the Silver in a close fought race.

 Malakai secured Silver in the 100mH as did Elkie Baker who due to illness was throwing off a half turn. Dylan Mills was one place out from making thd U17M 800m.  In the last event of the championships Mikel Alexander powered home to take 3rd in the U17M 200m in 22.56s just 0.05s outside his club record. “

 U13G

 100m

H1 4th Abena Boyer 14.11s PB q

H2 6th Emile Rose Boivin Emina 14.76s

H4 3rd Kamiah Francis-Harriott 14.33s PB Q

SF1 8th Abena Boyer 14.47s

200m

H2 2nd Abena Boyer 28.63s PB q

H3 3rd Kamiah Francis-Harriott 29.58s

H5 2nd Edina Rose Boivin-Emina 29.73s PB

SF2 5th Abena Boyer 31.04s

70mH

H1 2nd Abena Boyer 11.93s PB

H2 4th Anna Bah 13.67s

H3 4th Emilie-Rose Boivin-Emina 12.94

Final 5th Abena Boyer 11.86s PB

Long Jump

12th Anna Bah 3.89m PB

U15G

100m

H2 3rd Myla Miller 13.25s Q

SF1 4th Myla Miller 13.15s

U15B

300m

H4 4th Cosmo Miller 38.77s q

SF1 4th Cosmo Miller 38.81s

800m

H4 3rd Filip Kounoupas Prastalo 2:13.96

1500m

H1 5th Charlie Nicolson 4:23.00 PB Q

H3 7th Rory Willis 4:32.38 PB

Final 2nd Charlie Nicolson 4:15.50 🥈

80mH

H3 2nd Gabriel Edwards 11.96s q

Final 3rd Gabriel Edwards 11.70s 🥉

Shot Put

10th Leonard Hewings 10.49m PB

U17W

200m

H3 4th Samiyah Wilson 27.76s Q

SF2 7th  Samiyah Wilson 27.67s

300mH

H1 4th Kyra Smith 49.05s PB

Discus

2nd Elkie Baker 36.23m 🥈

U17M

200m

H2 1st Mikel Alexander 23.06s Q

SF Mikel Alexander 22.90s Q

Final 3rd Mikel Alexander 22.56s 🥉

800m

Hr4 4th Dylan Mills 2:05.71 q

SF3 6th Dylan Mills 2:05.49

100mH

H2 2nd Malakai David McKenzie Callum 13.49s Q

Final 2nd Malakai David McKenzie Callum 13.40s 🥈

Vets League Stevenage 9 June

In Match 2 of the Vets League, held at Stevenage, the Men’s team triumphed by taking 1st place on the night, and now lie in joint 2nd place overall on 15 points, just one point behind the leaders Illford . The Women’s team finished in 6th place. Full individual results are not currrently available, but there were individual 1st places for Charalambos Pittordis ( 200m, V35), Adrian Day ( 200m, V60 ), Adrian Essex ( 200m V70, ), Richard Macaulay ( 800m, V35 ), Stephen Booth ( Discus V50 ), Noelle O’Regan ( 200m & 800m, V35 ), Clare Sng ( 3000m V35 ) and the Men’s 4 x 400m relay team( pic )

Comrades Marathon       Pietermaritzburg to Durban, South Africa                   8 June

Gavin Evans sends his report on this 90km race, including silver medals for Sarah Swinhoe, who won her age group, and Jamie Morris ; along with the personal stories of a number of the participants from a race which has a 12 hour time limit and where a sub 9 hour time is required to collect the coveted Bill Murray medal.  

“ Sarah Swinhoe delivered one of the Heathside performances of the year by winning the 50 to 60 age category and a sliver medal at the Comrades Marathon down-run on Sunday in a remarkable time for an extremely hilly 90km course of 7:23.20. What made it even more impressive is that Sarah turns 55 next month but was 11 minutes ahead of the next, younger, runner in her age group.

Sarah went through the halfway mark at Drummond in 3.36.13 and despite having to make several stops along the way, kept on up the pace on the quad-burning, mainly downhill second half.

She was the first of the 10 Heathsiders who made the trip to be among the 23,000 runners in this exhilarating, friendly and inspiring event.

The ‘downhill’ race (next year will be uphill and so-on) starts in Pietermaritzburg at 5.45am and the first half is mainly uphill. The second half is mainly downhill but with some sharp uphills. As the day progressed and we got closer to Durban the heat and humidity rose and the temperature passed the 25-degree mark. All times are on the gun (no chip times) and a gun is fired at the 12-hour mark, with anyone not home by then declared a DNF.

The second Heathsider was Jamie Morris, who also won a silver medal in a time of 7:27.54. Jamie had been aiming at breaking the seven-hour barrier and all was going well when he passed Drumond at 3:39:36. But over the last 30km he had severe cramps and had to grit his teeth over the last 10 to get that well-deserved silver (sub 7:30).

Next was Damien Lane who had a remarkable performance given what he had gone through in the weeks and months before the race. He finished in 7:54:46, a negative split (his halfway time was 4:05:04). Damien had a series of injury mishaps in the run-up to the race, curtailing his training severely. Then, with a week to go an anterior ligament in his knee went and it looked like it was over for him before he started. But he managed to get a cortisone injection and physio two days before the race and made it to the start line with the ambition of just getting to the end. He did more than that, once again breaking the 8-hour barrier (he already has some silvers in his collection from previous Comrades).

Rob Shulman was the fourth Heathside runner in a time of 8:22.55 for what is his sixth Comrades. Rob gave himself a chance at getting that elusive silver and went through Drummond in 3:44:10 but could not maintain the pace and decided after it was all over that for future Comrades he would go for sub-8 instead and have a more comfortable experience.

Alex Sweet was another who decided afterwards that he was not built for 90 continuous kilometres (though he is clearly built for the stop-start of Backyard 24-hour events). He finished in 8:37.17, having gone through the half in 8-minute mile pace at 3:46.58.

Tony Shearer had an heroic race, finishing in 8:42.17. The day before the race his post Dubai flight headache turned into a full-on, serious viral infection with a temperature to match. Tony kindly offered not to join the rest of us in our Ubers from Durban to Maritzburg and also swapped rooms so that he was not sharing. But despite feeling terrible he lined up with the rest of us on the start line and finished in well under the nine hour mark to get his Bill Rowan medal.

My own race was a bit of a beast. I had done everything right in training and, for once, in my first big race as a V65, I was cautious going out, sticking to my intended 8:45 pace and dutifully going through the halfway mark in 4:19:12. But I guess my legs are not made for 90km and I slowed dramatically over the last 30. By the end, with my quads screaming at me, I bargained with them: ‘You can have a 0.1 mile walk for each mile you run,’ and in that way we got to the end, in 9:36.56, after which I threw up.

Alex Caballero and partner Frankie Hogge ran together the whole way. Both went through Drummond at 5:04:23 and both finished in the identical time of 10:50.33. 

The final Heathsider to finish was Murray Hogge, who was just a few minutes behind Frankie and Alex at the hallway (5:07:06) but slowed up after that and finished in 11:22:45 – a comfortable 37-minutes ahead of the cut-off time.”

Results

Sarah Swinhoe - 7:23:20 (first women’s V50-60, silver medal)

Jamie Morris – 7:27:45 (silver medal)

Damien Lane – 7:54:46 (Bill Rowan medal)

Rob Shulman – 8:22:55 (Bill Rowan medal)

Alex Sweet – 8:37:17 (Bill Rowan medal)

Tony Shearer – 8:42:17 (Bill Rowan medal)

Gavin Evans – 9:36:56

Alex Caballero – 10:50:33

Frankie Hogge – 10:50:33

Murray Hogge – 11:22:45

Speedy Steeds 10K Battersea Park 10 June

there were plenty of fast runs from our performers , led home by Seyfu

1 Seyfu Jamaal 14.31

7 William de Cothi 15.32

16 Christopher Gracie 15.42

26 Kader Seyed 16.02

28 Sammy Keenan 16.04

33 Andy Barnes 16.17

44 Deng Akol 16.39

140 Josie Hinton 18.27

160 Francesca Stocco 18.59

173 Oliver Murray 19.15

178 George Graham 19.19

202 Stephen Topp 19.51

242 Will Whitaker 21.22

255 Sandra Buckton 22.04 8th FV 50

280 Gabrielle Stones 26.10

Watford Open Watford 11 June

200m

H2 5th Rachel Mcdonald (SW) 27.00

800m

H2 7th Tam Mergia (U17M) 2:10.85

H2 8th Filip Kounoupas-Prastalo (U15B) 2:11.01

H5 8th Dylan Mills (U17M) 2:05.37

H8 7th Artie Feeny Willings (U20M) 2:17.13 PB

3000m

H1 2nd Ennio Kaloukian (U17M) 9:54.32

Park Runs

91 Heathsiders participated in parkruns last weekend, amongst them were first places for Jessica Prior ( Grovelands ) , Lily Woolcock ( Finsbury Park ), David Kirk and Chloe Wilkinson ( Ally Pally ) and Andrew Baldock ( Walthamstow ) ; full results can be found here here

compiled by Mark George, with thanks to contributions from Simon and Gavin