Seyfu Jamaal, Heathside women take gold in London Champs
A good weekend for Heathsiders with our women - Rebecca Piggott, Josie Hinton, Kelly Thorneycroft, Rosa Serafina - winning the London Cross Country championships at Parliament Hill, Hampstead Heath, and Seyfu Jamaal taking gold as the first U20 in the 10k men’s race.
Meanwhile in the London Youth Games, also at Parliament Hill, Spike Blake, Jake Evans and Thomas Archer all came within the top ten in the U13 boys’ race while Izzy Watkins came third (and was the first Haringey runner) in the U13 girls’ race.
Seven of our members travelled to Palermo, Italy, to run in their half marathon, with Matt Beard the first Heathsider in a PB of 1:29:15 and Caroline White the first V60 in the race.
London Cross-country Championships, Parliament Hill, Saturday November 17
Here is Captain Sue Rust’s report:
You may very well have heard the result by now, but it’s worth repeating and definitely worth knowing if you didn’t already: we won! London Heathside are the senior women London XC champions for 2018! Take a bow Rebecca, Josie, Kelly and Rosa.
In sunny but cold, dry conditions, we/they aced it, with Rosa as our final scorer crossing the line in an impressive 23rd place. Due to illness and a niggle Rosa didn’t have a super smooth transition to cross-country after a successful track season, so it was great to see her have a strong run on the Heath that is befitting her level of fitness. Rebecca is continuing to storm the cross-country season, Josie is also in great form after training for the Frankfurt marathon, and Kelly added another strong XC race to her tally.
In total we had 20 women racing, including some newcomers. A few of our women were feeling under the weather, Emma in particular, while the very uneven surface didn’t do any favours for a foot niggle Lily has been dealing with. The going did feel fairly treacherous at times but to my knowledge we all finished in one piece.
There was also some silverware for Heathside on the men’s side, courtesy of Seyfu, who finished 10th overall in the 10km race and first U20 – gold again.
The scoring team was completed by Ewan (35th), Charles (36th) and Thomas (Tom?) (47th) – Ewan thought he was in an eyeballs-out sprint finish with Charles, but video evidence shows Charles taking it quite easily …or at least looking quite relaxed.
Together the four of them came in sixth out of 35 teams, which strikes me as a pretty good result. All together Heathside fielded 37 in the senior men’s race; I was heartened in particular to see Bob Gould’s name in the results — one of our oldest members to don a club vest if I’m not mistaken, and always a pleasure to see.
London Youth Games, Parliament Hill, Saturday, November 17
Here is Simon Baker’s report:
A crisp sunny late autumn morning on Saturday 17th November saw the opening of the 2019 London Youth Games with the Cross Country races at Parliament Hill. These are traditionally held before the Seniors' London Championships. Almost 1,400 young runners between 10 and 17 competed for their respective London Borough including 29 young Heathsiders representing Haringey, Islington or Hackney.
The best individual performance was Spike Blake's 4th place in the U13 Boys race, with top 10 finishes also recorded by Thomas Archer and Jake Evans. Other notable efforts include Izzy Watkins being the 1st Haringey girl home as they finished 3rd in the U13 Girls Team competition.
The next opportunity for young Heathsiders to done their club colours is Saturday 24th at the NWLL meeting at Trent Park. Following that is the last XC meeting of the year, the Met League, on the 1st December at Uxbridge with its challenging river crossing and "ski slope" to be negotiated.
Palermo Half Marathon, Palermo, Italy, Sunday November 18
Here is Matthew Beard’s report:
“What the "Mezza Maratona di Palermo" lacks in organisational slickness, it makes up for in charm, as Heathsiders learnt on their annual overseas excursion. With the local Carabinieri still arguing among themselves about road closures on the route, and the drizzle descending, 1101 runners belatedly set off shortly after 9.30 am on Sunday.
The 13.1-mile course, characterised by seemingly endless long straight avenues, starts and finished at the main athletics stadium, which although fringed by palm trees cannot boast the pristine surface of Finsbury Park.
Runners were treated to many of the historic sights of the Sicilian capital, the showstopper coming at mile 6 where they cut through a palace courtyard - prompting one to wonder why the Queen has never opened the gates Buckingham Palace for a detour of the London marathon.
As the temperatures climbed to the high teens, the second half of the race proved tough going. However, there were were personal bests from Matt Beard (1:29:13, 59th) and Laurence “the flying doctor” Russell (1:30:56, 78th), both remaining as cool and calm as the surrounding Med.
Finishing in 1:54:01, Caroline White came first in her category, followed shortly afterwards by Edyta Szot. Respect also goes to Dan for battling the effects of dehydration and to teacher Rob, getting star of the weekend for dedication having had no sleep during a 24-hour flying visit. Nilesh, “Il Capo dei Capi” - and without whom none of the trip would have happened - crossed the line in a creditable 1:47.
Also among the Palermo party were Emilia and Ken, who offered stellar support having both been sidelined through injury. It proved a busman’s holiday for former catwalk lensman Ken, who turned his hand to action shots of a different kind on race day.”
Parkruns
There were two Heathside Parkrun winners on Saturday. Emma Ford was the first woman in Coventry in 19:43 and Tara Shrestha Carney was the first woman in Burgess in 20:55. Forty-four of our members ran in 21 Parkruns. Full Heathside results here.
Results
London Cross-country Championships, Parliament Hill, Saturday November 17
Senior women
1st London Heathside 55, 2nd Herne Hill Harriers 84, 3rd Highgate Harriers 115
5 Rebecca Piggott 23:06
12 Josie Hinton 23:37
15 Kelly Thorneycroft 23:58
23 Rosa Serafini 24:20
31 Annabel Litchfield 24:47
41 Sue Rust 25:11
47 Ula Cartwright-Finch 25:24
54 Emily Reichert 25:35
58 Emma Watson 25:45
67 Satu Hietanen 26:05
76 Lily Woolcock 26:19
99 Louisa Pointon 27:19
116 Jackie Wastell 27:53
119 Amber Fahey 27:59
123 Tammela Platt 28:04
130 Jessica Vinluan 28:17
182 Sarah Duke 29:55
186 Ruth Miller 30:11
243 Heather Marshall 32:37
286 Chloe Bean 35:42
Senior men
1st Thames Valley Harriers 32, 2nd Highgate Harriers 65, 3rd Serpentine 81, 6th London Heathside 128
10 Seyfu Jamaal 36:21
35 Ewan Gault 38:11
36 Charles Hardy 38:15
47 Thomas Clark 38:55
52 Pete Northall 39:13
66 Andy Barnes 40:02
108 Alex Sweet 41:49
112 Dan Johns 41:59
120 Matt Cockerill 42:10
135 Peter Ward 42:37
137 Martin Potter 42:41
143 Jonathan Litchfield 42:49
169 Adam Mitchell 43:30
170 Joseph Clemoes 43:32
195 Dominic Jackson 44:16
199 Luke Wynne 44:24
210 Paul Mercer 44:38
222 Rob Shulman 44:49
224 Nick O’Hora 44:50
230 Chris Vincent 44:58
233 Lee Connor 45:01
234 Paul Beale 45:07
236 Tony Shearer 45:09
250 Mark Jefford 45:38
251 Tom Haworth 45:39
258 Andy Owen 45:49
260 Gavin Evans 45:53
268 Mark Bailey 46:06
275 Rajiv Ratan 46:18
278 Pete Crockford 46:41
292 Jonathan Hopkin 47:12
294 Natan Doron 47:14
350 Tom Storr 49:33
362 Nick Dodd 50:17
383 Ben Montilla 51:35
404 Carl Heap 53:01
460 Bob Gould 1:07:00
London Youth Games, Parliament Hill, Saturday, November 17
Overall Team Position:-
1st Bromley, 6th Haringey, 13th Hackney, Not Placed Islington
U11 Girls - 1500m - (165 runners)
1st L Rose (LB of Lambeth) 6:09
62nd Ella Burridge (Hackney) 7:35
U11 Boys - 1500m - (149 runners)
1st L Reynolds (LB of Hackney/VP&TH) 6:03
50th Eric Beale (Haringey) 6:49
U13 Girls - 2000m - (247 runners)
1st A Reid (LB of Redbridge/Woodford) 7:49
15th Izzy Watkins (Haringey) 8:18
40th Hattie Munday (Haringey) 8:41
62nd Milly Watkins (Haringey) 8:55
191st Lucy Corkin (Islington) 9:54
U13 Boys - 2000m - (232 runners)
1st M Juxon (LB of Wandsworth/Belgrave) 7:16
4th Spike Blake (Haringey) 7:25
48th Stan Hasson (Islington) 8:05
50th Ivor Joslin (Islington)
73rd Gregory Beresford-Sweet (Islington) 8:16
145th Fred Beale (Haringey) 8:43
U15 Girls - 2000m - (193 runners)
1st A Ives (LB of Havering/Basildon) 7:25
34th Mia Manttan (Haringey) 8:14
43rd Lorna Dumbleton (Hackney) 8:25
46th Matilda Heath (Haringey) 8:34
67th Nell Swinhoe (Haringey) 8:39
111th Maia Hampton-Phillips (Haringey) 9:08
U15 Boys - 3000m - (181 runners)
1st M Musa (LB of Barnet/Shaftesbury BH) 10:11
10th Thomas Archer (Hackney) 10:35
31st Bedo Draskoczy (Islington) 11:13
32nd Theo Machin-Paley (Hackney) 11:18
41st Rauiri McGonagle (Haringey) 11:29
42nd Jack Davis Black (Haringey) 11:30
74th Karl Beaumont-Epstein (Hackney) 11:52
87th Lucas Macnair (Islington) 12:06
108th Lucas Maher (Haringey) 12:23
110th Raymond Edwin (Islington) 12:25
128th Arthur Reed (Haringey) 12:35
142nd Kit Naylor (Hackney) 12:48
U17 Women - 3000m - (99 runners)
1st C Buckley (LB of Hounslow/Thames Valley H) 11:29
16th Mimi Blake (Haringey) 12:34
34th Evelyn Dumbleton (Hackney) 13:09
U17 Male - 4500m - (132 runners)
1st M Ali (LB of Ealing/ESM) 16:00
9th Jake Evans (Hackney) 17:12
101st Stanley Brown (Hackney) 21:03
Palermo Half Marathon, Palermo, Italy, Sunday November 18
Matt Beard 1:29:13 (chip unless stated)
Laurence Russell 1:30:56
Nilesh Goswami 1:47 approx ( officially dnf due to error)
Caroline White 1:54:01
Rob Bean 1:58:03
Edyta Szot 1:59:44
Daniel Wrapson 2:30 approx (officially dnf)
Report by Gavin Evans, with big thanks to Sue Rust, Simon Baker and Matt Beard.