Athletics: South London clubs produce impressive results in latest Surrey Cross Country League fixture
Despite grey skies, the autumn leaves provided a stunning backdrop as Herne Hill Harriers showed up in force with 17 women and 36 men finishers in the second Surrey Cross Country League fixture of the season in Beckenham Place Park on Saturday afternoon, writes Geoff Jerwood.
This strong numerical turnout was backed up by excellent individual and team results. The women’s A and B teams of five runners each secured impressive second-placed finishes, with Lucy Jones dominating the race to win by a clear 17 seconds.
The men’s A teams were fifth on the day and claimed fourth among the B teams. They were led by another in-form athlete Brandon Dewar, who produced an outstanding fifth place individual finish.
The women continued their superb early season results, with Jones going from strength to strength as her confidence and race fitness progress. She followed up an eyebrow-raising run at the Mansfield relays a week earlier with an emphatic victory in Beckenham.
Sophie Tooley had also raced well in those relays in a national top-10 team and followed up with her best cross-country result to date as she finished fourth behind Jones. The A team was completed by Grace Leyland 19th, W40 Gaby Reynolds 28th, on her 43rd birthday, and Darcie Hey 32nd, still
recovering from recent illness.
The B team featured good runs from Helena Keenan 36th, Jenny Nandi 37th, Charlotte Davies 42nd, W40 Leonie Biemolt 51st and Megan Gildea 67th.
This was another show of squad depth, only rivalled locally by Belgrave Harriers women, who took both the A and B team wins. After two races in the league season Belles have the leading A and B teams with Herne Hill a clear second in both categories in the overall league table.
Dewar followed up a big PB at the recent Valencia Half Marathon with his best cross-country race to date, finishing fifth in a top-class field in what is undoubtedly the strongest league in the country this year.
Twin debutants Morgan and Harry Roberts made a good difference as the former was the next Harriers man in 32nd and his brother was ninth team scorer in 74th. The remaining A team men were Daniel Shaw 35th, Andrew Clarke 39th, Jack Brotchie 64th, Fabien Whitelock 65th and second U20, Sam Brashaw 69th and Joe Elliott 87th.
The B team – the next 10 men from the club across the line – provided invaluable back up. Ever-improving Charlie Wood was only just outside an A team finish in 88th overall and was fourth among U20s. Wood was followed in by Ronan Tanguy 93rd, Ashley Goncalves 96th, M40 Jeff Cunningham 101st, Ross Brown 124th, Matt Cartwright 139th, M45 Ben Millar 149th, Ryan Willmott 150th, Fintan Kearney 155th and Stephen McLeod 164th.
John Cousins and Calum Murphy were 165th and 167th.
HERCULES WIMBLEDON
U15 Isabella Harrison clocked the fastest time at a parkrun for a female, youth or senior, in the UK this weekend, writes George Mallett.
Harrison’s official time of 16:59 ranks as the fifth-fastest parkrun by an U15 ever and saw her finish 14th of all competitors at the newly established Battersea event.
It is a PB over the 5km distance, more than 30 seconds better than her 17:32 from Dulwich in June 2023.
It’s all the more impressive given it is understood Harrison ran even faster (16:53) but was mistakenly put behind an athlete she beat in the official results.
Harrison’s mark is a club senior women’s record, a mind-blowing feat given she is almost eight years below the senior age group.
On the same day, Hercules also had squads appearing at the second fixture of the Surrey Cross Country League Division 1 at Beckenham Place Park.
Having won fixture one in October, the senior men packed tightly to triumph by 68 points from Belgrave, who remain their closest challengers.
GB international Stu McCallum led the way. He maintained his 100 per cent record in the competition to take his second individual win, holding off the challenge of England international Jeremy Dempsey.
Totals are made by counting the finishing positions of a club’s top-10 counters, with Hercules finishing the scoring within 33 runners.
It was Alex Milne, also a GB international, that was next home for Hercules. Deep in preparations for the World 100km Championships in Bangalore in December, he finished third, his best ever result in seven outings in the league.
George Brown, 11th at the last fixture, was 13th with Andrew Penney 16th. Cross-country captain James Stockings was fifth man home in 22nd, chased home by Charlie Wyllie in 23rd. Brothers George and Ed Mallett were 28th and 29th respectively, with Fred Slemeck a few seconds behind in 31st. Richard McDowell, the leading athlete aged over 40 in the competition, closed out the scoring 10 in 33rd.
Hercules finished second in the B team competition. Alex Sutton and Henry Silverstein were the first men home, in 47th and 49th respectively.
For the women, Ruby Carter had a highly impressive debut, moving through the field to finish sixth, the best by a Hercules woman for many a year.
What makes it all the more exciting is Carter, formerly of Shrewsbury AC, is still an U23. Claire Grima was next home in 47th with Matilde Lomba in 53rd. Poppy Robson in 57th and Gina Galbraith in 84th made up the scoring five, with Hercules A finishing tenth.
Both squads will look forward to the next fixture in January 2025.
DULWICH RUNNERS
Dulwich Runners’ teams were back in Surrey League action on Saturday with the ladies at Oxted and the men co-hosting the Beckenham Division 1 fixture, writes Jonathan Whittaker.
The ladies team continued their superb start to their promotion campaign from Division 2 with another win at a new 6km course in Oxted.
With five to score, Alex McClelland’s fine third place (24:41) and Helen Shannon’s fifth (24:52) gave Dulwich the perfect start. Strong runs from Katie Smith (16th, 25:40), Harriet Mountain (18th, 25:52) and Alicja Furmanczyk (23rd, 26:27) edged Dulwich ahead of Ful-on-Tri to win the race.
The B team – featuring Laura Vincent, Katie Styles, Ange Norris, Jane Bradshaw and Eleanor Simmons – also had an excellent day as they finished ninth out of all A and B teams.
Over at Beckenham, Dulwich finished a creditable eighth in the toughest cross country division in the country.
The 7km course was a little shorter than advertised resulting in more than a few runners having surplus energy at the finish.
Jack Ramm was first home for Dulwich in a superb 13th (22:35). Ed Chuck was not feeling at his best but still recorded a fine 27th (23:02). James Dazeley (53rd, 23:42), Ben Howe (61st, 23:53) and Aaron Wilson (86th, 24:14) gave the team some useful midfield points. The team’s scoring was completed by James Blackwood (103rd, 24:35), Sean Cordon (108th, 24:41), Max Bloor (114th, 24:51), Ed Gibson (119th, 24:55) and debutant Toby Bond (131st, 25:08).
Dulwich are seventh out of 10 teams with the bottom two going down.
