Heathside ladies retain London XC crown
Saturday saw one of the early highlights of the cross country season: the London Championships at Parliament Hill. The resurgent Rebecca Piggott led the ladies team to another victory, while the men acquitted themselves well without some of their best runners.
As befits a home fixture on the iconic Heath, we had Heathsiders to spare, with 27 out of 270-odd finishers in the women's race and 59 out of 500-odd finishers in the men's race.
In the women's race, we had two in the top 10 finishers, with Rebecca (fifth) and Ella (seventh). Making up the scoring team were Kelly (17th) and Josie (21st) with an honourable mention for an outstanding run from Eilidh to get 25th place overall.
This clutch of excellent performances meant Heathside's ladies were London champions for the third year in a row, much to the delight of club chairman Jerry, who wandered off into the woods to tell Ron the good news.
For the men, it was an impressive debut for Charlie Ogilvie, although he had to settle for second Heathsider behind another strong run from Kimon. Juan-Carlos and Pete Northall made up the men's team, who were seventh out of 34 teams.
As usual, there were some close-fought finishes among clubmates, with the best of the action being Simon Dunderdale, whose spikes had fallen off his XC shoes, slipping and sliding home just ahead of Ed, who outstripped Martin Potter and Matt Collins, with all four fiery competitors crossing the line within six seconds of each other.
Full provisional results below, although these are subject to one or two corrections.
Elsewhere
Andrew Prystawsky took part in the Hertfordshire Half, and picked up a very creditable top-50 finish, out of a 2,000-strong field. Just inside 89 minutes.
Very elsewhere
Henry HG reports from Kentucky (or, Kentucky USA, as he helpfully put in his email): "Being Thanksgiving week I was happy to find a half marathon in the 'horse country' of Lexington aptly named the 'Gobbler'."
(Henry then describes the course as basically running six-and-a half miles out of a farmyard, before turning around and running six-and-a-half miles back, although perhaps with more enthusiasm than I'm conveying.)
He continues: "I was pleasantly surprised to win my age category in a fairly steady 1:37. The medal has to be one of my all-time favourites (photo attached) and Bob the race director was ecstatic that he could now call his race an 'international race'."
Results
London Cross Country Championships, 18 November
Senior Women
5 Rebecca Piggott 0:21:26
7 Ella Waldman 0:21:34
17 Kelly Thorneycroft 0:22:49
21 Josie Hinton 0:22:59
25 Eilidh Wagstaff 0:23:09
28 Sarah Swinhoe 0:23:25
39 Corinna Jackson 0:23:54
42 Sue Rust 0:24:00
48 Leigh James 0:24:14
53 Emily Reichert 0:24:23
62 Satu Hietanen 0:24:56
64 Emma Watson 0:24:58
67 Helen Robson 0:25:06
91 Tara Shrestha Carney 0:25:58
99 Louisa Pointon 0:26:09
102 Sally Chatterton 0:26:17
107 Yvette Ralston 0:26:23
109 Hannah Stanforth 0:26:28
115 Jackie Wastell 0:26:45
116 Jessica Vinluan 0:26:46
123 Emilia Vynnycky 0:26:57
154 Ruth Miller 0:27:52
157 Hannah Jordan 0:28:01
159 Caroline White 0:28:05
196 Kimberli Butler 0:29:39
216 Gabrielle Johnson 0:30:37
222 Rebecca Marshall 0:31:25
☆First team overall
Senior Men
36 Kimon Doulis 0:36:48
46 Charlie Ogilvie 0:37:21
59 Juan Carlos Casal Perez 0:38:03
60 Pete Northall 0:38:05
63 David Hellard 0:38:11
66 Daniel McKeown 0:38:18
73 Sion Lewis 0:38:37
82 Richard Macaulay 0:39:01
91 Daniel Johns 0:39:18
108 Tom Fancett 0:39:51
114 Jonathan Litchfield 0:39:58
118 William Griffiths 0:40:06
131 James Rigby 0:40:30
136 Simon Dunderdale 0:40:42
137 Edward Samuel 0:40:43
139 Martin Potter 0:40:45
140 Matt Collins 0:40:46
146 Luke Wynne 0:40:53
151 Olivier le Polain 0:41:01
156 John Driscoll 0:41:13
157 Chris Hartley 0:41:16
159 Edward Adams 0:41:19
165 Michael Cockings 0:41:31
170 Stuart Meiklejohn 0:41:35
173 Joseph McKeown 0:41:44
181 Dominic Jackson 0:41:58
191 Doug Rendle 0:42:11
199 Mark Anderson 0:42:25
200 Paul Beale 0:42:26
203 Leonard Martin 0:42:33
207 Mark Jefford 0:42:40
210 Peter Ward 0:42:45
212 Howard Gold 0:42:48
217 Matthew Cockerill 0:42:57
221 Jake Spencer 0:43:04
224 Philip Hogg 0:43:06
227 Lee Connor 0:43:10
229 Joseph Clemoes 0:43:13
244 Mark Bailey 0:43:29
247 Trevor Wilson 0:43:35
251 Tony Shearer 0:43:49
265 Gavin Evans 0:44:17
270 Joe Barker 0:44:22
278 Marcus Tillotson 0:44:36
279 Chris Vincent 0:44:39
297 Jacob Howe 0:45:08
320 Mark George 0:45:55
331 Laurence Arnold 0:46:11
340 Kris Milovsorov 0:46:39
348 Tom Bedwell 0:46:54
353 Paul Tonkinson 0:47:03
357 Liam Hazelton 0:47:09
368 Francois Barou 0:47:40
382 Pete Crockford 0:48:00
424 Carl Heap 0:50:10
438 Shaan Haque 0:51:26
440 Tim Sander 0:51:33
472 Daniel Wrapson 0:55:28
479 Alun Nash 0:57:18
Seventh team overall
Hertfordshire Half Marathon 19 November
45 Andrew Prystawsky 1:28:55
Gobbler Half Marathon, Kentucky, USA
14 Henry Hamilton Gould 1:37:03