Holly Dixon: London Champion!
With a winning margin of over 20 seconds Holly's victory at Parliament Hill was emphatic; the result was only ever in doubt when due to poor marshalling she went off course, not once but twice! On one occasion being called back by team-mate Megan.
Holly and Megan leading the field
There was a depleted turnout of just four senior women, Holly and Megan were well backed up by Sophie Johnson and Maria MacDonald completed the four to score team, 18th place is not too shabby if you have to go that far down the age categories to get your fourth scorer!
Megan, Maria, Sophie, Holly
When it came to the senior men's race we had a great turnout of 16, although two do not show in the results, Martin Hawkins retiring with an injury and Dave Worden completing the course but having somehow managed to loose his timing chip during his warm-up. It was great to see so many new faces; six of the sixteen have been Cambridge Harriers for less than six months, Jordan Leblanc, Andy Doyle and Clinton Lowe all chose this for their first cross country appearances for the club, and all seemed to be hungry for more after the experience.
Jordan, Andy, Tarbo, Clinton, Luke, Luiz, Clem, Chris, Peter R, Martin, Ian, Peter St A, Peter H, Graham
Not shown: Bayley and Dave (looking for his chip?)
Bayley Massey was our first home followed by Chris Loudon and Peter Reynolds. Dave Worden would have completed the four to score team if he had finished with a chip, as it was that honour went to Jordan Leblanc, the team coming 10th.
Peter Reynolds
Jordan Leblanc
The Parliament Hill conditions were relatively benign, but remember folks, these were just the baby races. We will be back in February for the Nationals: longer courses, bigger fields and more mud!
London Youth Games
Prior to the London Championships many of your young runners competed in the London Youth Games Cross Country Championships, a separate event but run on the same Parliament Hill course. The LYG is a competition between London Boroughs so our athletes were representing their respective boroughs rather than the club.
Under 13 girls, 2k. Iris Williams produced our best performance of the day when finishing in 4th place with a time of 8:09. Sophia Pawa finished comfortably inside the top half of the field when crossing the line in 56th place (9:21). Anagha Pai (108th, 9:54) and Celia Yeatman (167th, 10:49) were our other finishers in this age group. It should be mentioned that Celia would have recorded a time of at least a minute quicker had she not had one of here spikes 'removed' by another athlete when stepping on her heal.
Iris Williams
Sophia Pawa and Celia Yeatman
Under 13 boys, 2k. Sprinter Tom Ravenscroft was first to finish from the club in 64th place (8:23). Our other competitor, Aniket Iyengar crossed the line a second later in 66th position.
Under 15 girls, 2k. As per the Kent League cross country matches, Amelia Lawrence was our first to finish in 55th position (8:47). Scarlette Bennett (65th, 8:56), Abigail Richards (69th, 8:58), Milli Atkinson (76th, 9:01) and Mia Harris (89th, 9:11) were our other finishers in this age group.
Under 15 boys, 3k. There was not much to separate our three competitors in this race. All finished within 9 seconds of each other. The results were Sam Holloway (84th, 12:13), Luke Bridges (86th, 12:15) and Felix Tynan (93rd, 12:22).
Under 17 women, 3k. Bea Harrison was first to finish in 36th place (13:26) followed closely by Eva Woods in 41st place (13:34). Our other competitors were Evie Ravenscroft (43rd, 13:41), Inez Rice (54th, 14:06) and Bella Richard's (65th, 14:37).
Inez Rice
Well done to all of our young athletes for gaining selection to represent their respective boroughs.