Belgrave Road and Country review of the 2014-15 season

May 6, 2015 Will Cockerell

70 Athletes Haul A Dozen Gold and Silver

It was a very successful season with many great moments and some real excitement. Six championships were claimed (four by the women and two by the men), and six runner-up spots as well.Perhaps the highlight was the men finally striking medals at the Southern Cross champs after a medal drought of 44 years at that event, one the most severe of the calendar. On that day in Brighton Paskar Owor placed a magnificent 2^nd to cap a tremendous season.The women put in a great effort and managed just about as good a set of returns as 2013-14. The Surrey League was retained, as were both South of the Thames titles, with very fine runner-up spots in the Southern, the Southern cross relay and the Southern road relay.The men were unlucky to lose key men shortly before both their Sutton Park endeavours, but signs are promising as they led till the end of leg 4 at the 6 stage, and were still in bronze going into leg 9 of the 12 stage.Individually, the men's squad welcomed four exceptionally strong runners in Gus Upton, Alex Miller, Andrius Jaksevicius and Taras Telkovsky. With Nick Bundle running at a new level and giving us 10 outings, plus the small matter of Ed Auden, Kris Gauson, Phil Wicks and Nick Goolab hopefully in more regular action for 2015-16, not to mention our powerful Scottish contingent, we have high hopes for the future.The women were incredibly well served by Mel Wilkins and Zoe Doyle, who upped their remarkable tally of 25 contributions last year, to 28 this term. What amazing consistency and loyalty. They were brilliantly backed up by Keri, Fee and Jojo, with plenty of others chipping in regularly.Although the women had a tiny dip from last season’s 33 athletes, with 31, they hit a new big club record for performances logged with 136. [The preceding five seasons were: 41, 62, 87, 103 & 129]. Amazingly, and this is the freakiest stat of all, the men ‘only’ carded 131 races; which means that for the first time in Belgrave history we are witnessing more female road and country action than male...What an incredible journey they have gone on since admittance to the club in 1976. A male at Belgrave is currently averaging 3.27 races per season; whereas a female averages 4.38. On this day in 1979 a woman took over Britain, well now women are taking over Belgrave! However much we can celebrate the Belles prowess and thirst for competition, I have one message for the lads: “stop being so gun-shy – you need to get out more!”A huge thanks to all 70 athletes for all they do to protect and serve the club, and enable it to flourish as they do. An even bigger thanks to the four club captains Dan, Roy, Fee and Hester for rallying the troops as they did, and being so supportive to our aims; and biggest thanks to our race day match manager Charlie Dickinson who so ably and reliably oiled the wheels on race days which can get pretty frantic.Enjoy your summers and we look forward to doing it all over again in 2015-16.Will CockerellBelgrave Harriers Team Manager, Road & Country, Men and Women.

2014-15 Season results:

Team Appearances

[tables]MENS TEAM|(39)|WOMENS TEAM|(31)Paskar Owor|12|Mel Wilkins|14Nick Bundle|10|Zoe Doyle|14Will Cockerell|10|Keri Mackenzie|10Taras Telkovsky|9|Jojo Rhodes|10Gus Upton|9|Fee Maycock|9Roy Maddams|8|Catherine Lovegrove|7Andrius Jaksevicius|7|Felicity Cole|5Knut Hegvold|5|Hester Barsham-Rolfe|5Alex Miller|4|Samantha Amend|5Kris Gauson|4|Rose O’Brien|5Matt Welsh|4|Sophie Carter|5Craig Ruddy|4|Zoe Vail Smith|4Terry O’Neill|4|Gemma Farrell|4Patrick McDougall|3|Lea Virchow|4Stephen Trainer|2|Genia Marek|4Dan Mulhare|2|Abbie Friday|3Mike Trees|2|Anne Hegvold|3Luke Pikett|2|Celine Duraffourd|3Fraser Logan|2|Vicki Goodwin|3Mark Pollard|2|Rieko Trees|2Doug Morton|2|Fi Maddocks|2Stephen Sharp|2|Maureen Noel|2Adam Schindler|2|Nici Cahusac|2JC Doukrou|2|Louise Blizzard|2Tim Weeks|2|Sally Underhill|2Ed Auden|2|Alison Heydenrych|2Matt Taylor|2|Calvi Thompson|1Charlie Dickinson|1|Justine Lynch|1Andrew Connick|1|Sarah Lewis|1Dan Higginson|1|Tamsin Lees|1Phil Wicks|1|Emma Stevens|1Frank Ward|1||Romain Miroza|1||Nick Smallwood|1||Don Anderson|1||Tom Corbett|1||Phil Carstairs|1||Mal Byansi|1||Fergus Scholes|1||[/tables]