Weekly Update - 22nd Oct. 2025

European Masters Athletics T & F Championships, Madeira (POR) (9th to 19th Oct.)

Chris Loudon (M40), who won medals at the World Masters indoor championships in March over 800m and 3000m, focused on the 1500m at these championships, triumphing by two seconds with 4:01.67s.

In the M90 age group Warwick Dixon had a very busy championships, contesting all the throws plus the throws pentathlon where he finished 8th. In the individual events he won silver in the discus (21.12m) and weight (10.65m). He added a bronze in the hammer, bettering his own club record with 20.24m. In the javelin and shot he finished 4th and 6th.

Wole Odele improved on his M60 400m club record with a time of 56.94s to take bronze moving up to equal seventh on the UK all-time-lists. Wole also picked up relay gold in the 4 x100 and 4 x 400 relays.

Kent Cross Country League #2, Tonbridge (Sat. 18th Oct.)

Senior Men: The myopic diarist John Evelyn may have been a founding fellow of the Royal Society, but clearly knew nothing about cross country running. Writing in 1652, he dismissed Somerhill as “nothing extraordinary”, failing to connect with the terrain, noting as he did the “eminent hill”.

Fast forward to 2025 and that hill played a central role in some extraordinary racing, concluding with Cambridge Harriers maintaining second position in the senior men’s rankings behind hosts Tonbridge AC, writes Peter St-Amour.

Dry conditions assured a fast pace, however with two sapping ascents on each of the laps there was no room for complacency. Twenty six entries from Cambridge Harriers ensured strength in depth, and up against home team Tonbridge we finished honourably.

Of the top ten places, Tonbridge took eight. First Harrier home was Alex Walker in twelfth, five seconds ahead of Danny Kendall (15th, 2nd M40), coincidentally five seconds ahead of Ben Shearer (17th, 3rd M40), with James Macdonald (26th, 7th M40) completing the four to score. In that competition we maintain our second place overall behind Tonbridge, three points clear of tying Blackheath & Bromley AC and Medway & Maidstone AC.

In the twelve to score on the day we placed third, maintaining second position overall after two rounds with Blackheath & Bromley HAC now nipping at our heels.

A fiercely anticipated round three follows on 15 November, returning closer to home turf at Danson Park. A venue John Evelyn also knows nothing about as he died before the house and park came about.

Senior Women: The Cambridge Harriers senior women put in a strong team performance on what was, for once, a dry and forgiving course, writes Emma Brown. Conditions were a welcome change from last year’s mud-fest, though the infamous steep hill—tackled twice over the two-lap route—still provided a stern test for all.

Seven ladies lined up for the race. Katie Sanders led the team home with another consistent and determined run. She was followed by Julie Backley, who made an excellent start to her cross country season with a confident first outing. Christine Bond was next home followed closely by Marian Hine, both finishing in the top half of the field.

Maggie Illingworth continued her reliable run of form with another solid performance, while Stephanie Dann made her season debut, engaging in a close contest with Emma Brown over course. Stephanie’s late surge in the final 400 metres gave her just enough to hold off Emma, finishing four seconds ahead. Emma showed great strength to fend off a final challenge from Lesley of Istead & Ifield Harriers to the line.

It was a strong turnout and a great team effort from the Cambridge Harriers women, who overall finished sixth in the team of three competition and fifth in the team of six.

Young Age Groups: Despite it being the start of half term for some of our young athletes we still had a good turnout in most of the younger age group races, writes Mark Newell.

Peggy O'Leary equalled her performance from the first fixture when placing eighth in the under 13 girl's race.  In the same race, there were club debuts for Lily Mesquitta (No 18 22nd) and Elke Moon (No 19 30th). 

Lizzie Sanders was our first finisher in the under 15 girls race, coming home in tenth.  Piper Wood was another making her debut for the club, finishing 42nd. In the under 15 boy's race, Ayotunde Dauda matched his previous performance to finish third

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In the under 17 women's race, first to finish for the club was Meredith Cummins, taking 7th. Violet and Isla Turner completed their first cross country races for the club, finishing 12th and 17th respectively.

Violet Turner - Celia Yeatman - Isla Turner

Oliver cook was first to finish for the club in the under 17 boy's race (12th), right behind him, in 13th was fast improving Daniel Whitehouse. We only had two competitors in the under 20 races with Emer Tynan once again winning the women's race and Thomas Everson taking 9th in the men's race.

Abingdon Marathon (Sun. 19th Oct.)

Rose Baker (W60) finished 503rd overall (85th female) in a time of 3:32:48.