Two Belgrave teams take honours at South of the Thames 5 mile race

The Belles continued their medal rush with the team win in the South of the Thames 5 mile race, while the Bels ended their silverware drought at Beckenham Place Park.

Belles strike gold

Words by Big Rob Kelly

It was a crisp day at Beckenham Place Park for the South of the Thames 5 Mile Team Race. The women’s team have had a great start to the winter season and today was no different as they took top honours.

Leading the team home and picking up individual bronze was Emily Robbins, who adds another great run to her list impressive performances so far this season.

Naomi Lenane followed a few more spots later in 7th place. With 4 to score, it was looking promising that the Belles would improve on their team third from the same fixture last year.

It didn’t take long for Laura Goodson and Natalie Beadle to close out the scoring positions in 9th and 10th to secure the team gold for the Belles. The ‘A’ team edged hosts, Kent AC (41), with a score of 29.

Team Captain Mimi Corden-Lloyd showed her half-marathon strength with a 15th place finish just in front of Ella-May Hards who came in in 20th position.

Sarah Riceman and Lydia Gallyer-Barnett finished in 21st and 24th and Olivia Papaioannou, who is trying to race herself fit after a number of months out with injury, came in with an admirable 25th place finish.

With a lot of races over the past few months and many more on the horizon, the strength of depth of the women’s squad was on show yet again. No doubt, team manager Charlie Dickinson will be delighted.

Natalie Beadle puts in another great display

Bels bag silverware

With both a 4 to score and 8 to score team category up for grabs, the men’s team were looking to improve on their pair of second place finishes from Lloyd Park last year. Kent AC, with a little over 20% of the field, had different plans however.

Sam Gebreselassie put on another classy performance slowly moving through the field to bag a 5th place finish.

Sam Sommerville was doing his best to emulate Henry Hart by absolutely steaming out from the start line and leading the field on the first lap. He managed to hold out for 6th. This was yet another impressive run from the men’s teams’ star of the season so far.

Ollie Garrod closed out the top 10 with another great run. Not bad for a man who not only ran 15:07 for 5k the day before, but also claimed his 400th race win a few hours before the race at the Nonsuch Parkrun!

James Fox closed out the ‘A’ team scoring positions in 11th. He was followed closely by Ollie Smith, Charlie Wood and Rob Kelly in 15th, 16th and 20th positions who all claim to have been affected by an disobedient sausage dog giving chase on the course.

Matt Edgar was the all-important 8th team scorer in 23rd place and Valentin Rigori rounded out the men’s team with a 49th place.

Given we had 4 in the top 11 and 8 in the top 23, there was a fleeting optimism that the team had won both team golds. However, Kent AC rained on that parade as the count revealed they had marginally won both categories by single figures.

All in all it was another enjoyable day and our appreciation to all of those that organised. Congratulations to all those who ran and came away with silverware.

Tommy Taylor continues his return from injury