Holly Dixon selected for Team England
Congratulations to Holly Dixon who will represent England at the Elgoibar Cross Country in Spain on 5 January 2025. The following has been reproduced from the England Athletics news report 'Holly Dixon (Cambridge Harriers) - Holly finished 2nd in the Short Course Race at the European Trial in Liverpool but unfortunately was not selected to race in Türkiye. Holly was selected to run in Roeselare for England in October where she had a fantastic run to finish 5th, this all off a positive summer season and gaining PB’s in 1500m, 3000m and 5000m, also finishing 2nd at the delayed ECCA National Cross Country.'
World Race Walking Tour - Bronze, St Anne's Park, Dublin (Sun. 15th Dec.)
The clubs leading race walkers, Hannah Hopper and Luc Legon, again travelled to Dublin over the weekend for the World Race Walking Tour event which attracted over 250 race walkers from around the world. As in 2023 Hannah and Luc received funding from the English Race Walking Association to cover travel and accommodation costs, for which they and the club are grateful.
Hannah was the first to race in the women's 10km. The blustery conditions and the remnants of a cold she picked up at the beginning of the week meant she was not able to better the time she achieved in Holland in October, crossing the line in third place overall and taking gold in the U23 category.
Luc contested the 20km where in the latter stages he was battling a tightening hamstring, reduced his personal best by a little under one minute thirty to 1:33:25.
Lesnes Abbey 5 Mile (Sun. 15th Dec.)
Located in the woods immediately to the south of Lesnes Abbey is a fossil pit of shark teeth from when the area was underwater 55 million years ago. Fast forward to 2024, put a good number of those teeth side by side and you’ll recreate the profile of the Lesnes Abbey 5 race that took place on Sunday, writes Peter St-Amour.
With barely a flat section to the course, the organisers did well to fit a single loop into the space available. This did mean a lot of intersections, but the marshalling was top drawer. It also gave the advantage/horror of teasing what steep climb or loose descent was up next as the course twisted through the ancient woods.
With ten starters, Cambridge Harriers had the most entries of any club. The sight of a single - and presumably not lost - Highgate Harrier at an event south of the river indicated the race was very much on. Thankfully with last year’s winner James MacDonald joined by Danny Kendall, we were well represented at the sharp end.
Thirty five minutes later at the finish both were closely pipped to the victory by Dame Dibaba of Kent AC. With second and fourth positions for Danny and James and the top three covered by less than a minute, it was a close fought contest. Following in were Daniel Allinson (9th), Peter St-Amour (19th) and James Floyd (25th). After James came Graham Maynard (33rd), David Hunter (43rd), Clem Dixon (49th), Russell Buchanan (53rd) and our sole female representative of Emma Brown in 98th overall.
A generous package of chocolate made a welcome finishers’ prize, and for those of us parked at the top of the hill, a gentle walk up yet another steep ascent.
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