Belles snatch bronze at Southern Cross Country Championships

Belgrave Harriers’ women sealed third in the team standings at the Southern Cross Country Championships, while the Bels ran in packs to ninth place.

Bronze for the Belles in Beckenham Place Park

Words by Charlie Dickinson

It was another good day for the Belles, winning team bronze medals in the South of England Cross Country Championships at Beckenham Place Park. They added these medals to those won in all the other SEAA races this season: silver in the 4-stage road relay, the London Championships, and bronze in the three-stage Cross-Country relay. 

This is now the third year the Championships have been held at Beckenham and with Parliament Hill restricted to only two races a year after local residents’ objections, it seems now a permanent fixture. The undulating grassland course has been modified and improved to mainly avoid any hard stony paths and to reduce the men's 15km race to just two very long laps.

Léa Adamson led the Belles home with another very strong run in 19th place, and was pleased to beat several members of the Cottage training group - a Battersea-based group that draws in the cream of local clubs. Léa is busy studying for her Doctor's exams but fortunately found the time to support the team. While she was ill for two weeks after the New Year, she seems to back to her best form.

Roughly ten places further back came a group containing Naomi Lenane, Felicity Harrison, Steph Hewitt and Karen Xiang running pretty much together. After the first lap Felicity dropped out with a sore knee, but the other three continued to run closely together right to the end of the race. 

Naomi finished next in 29th. After a slow start to the winter season caused by injuries, Naomi has been a real asset to the team, scoring in every race she has done. This was another very strong performance.

It was wonderful to see Karen winning her first ever medal for the team, she finished just ahead of Steph at the end. Karen spent the autumn regaining her fitness after joining the club and has improved throughout the season. She was delighted to win her well-deserved medal. The race was also the best-ever for Steph, who is not usually known for her love of cross country, and her medal was also her first in this format. She ran a very sensible, controlled race that proved vital for the team.

It was a good week for Steph. She joined the club in 2018 after moving to London from Scotland to begin her PhD at Imperial College. She has always supported Belgrave teams on the track, road and cross-country and is together with Mimi, the Road and Cross-Country captain as well as being a committee member. Although she competed her thesis last year, it was only last week that she was able to sit and pass her Viva, the oral part of the assessment.  From now on we shall have to call her Doc Hewitt! 

The next four Belles to finish were not very far behind, Sam Munday in 59th, then in the mid sixties, Natalie Beadle who is leading the Ladies plate competition, and Liv Papaioannou getting stronger with every race. They were followed by Lydia Gallyer-Barnett in the late seventies with a good run. B teams are not counted in this Championship, but if they were, these four would have finished 9th out of 37 competed team from the South of England. Another indication of the strength in depth that is the hallmark of this team.

It was wonderful to see the newly-married Samantha Hudson dos Santos Figueira supporting the team along with new husband Victor and the two dogs. Sam has had to battle injury and illness over the last year but this has not prevented her from her being selected for the GB and  England Ultra distance teams. Sam was the President of the club last year and has always been a passionate Belgravian.  

Finally, Sarah Dewhirst ran despite her lack of racing fitness after a slow recovery from a knee injury. She said she would come and just 'jog' round the course. But she managed to finish inside the first half of a field of over 360 runners, which shows that she is well on her way back to her best. 

Naomi Lenane and Karen Xiang power their way uphill

Bels battle to ninth over shortened course

Words by Alex Janiaud

Credit: Ed Hanton

These are the good days. The sun is out, the setting is beautiful, and you’re pulling on a Belgrave vest with your pals. The Southern Champs didn’t yield silverware for the boys this year - it’s a tall order - but our 20 finishers can be proud of achieving 9th in the team standings, having thoroughly enjoyed themselves in a series of inter-team battles along the way.

Over a sure yet undulating course that came in short of the standard 15km at Southerns, Henry Hart led the team home, finishing an excellent 36th. He was followed by Sam Sommerville and Ollie Garrod, who took 42nd and 48th respectively. Predicted scorer Fin Dyer was unfortunate to drop out after a strong start, but there’s plenty more to come from the flying Fin. We’re looking forward to seeing the fruits of his labours at future championships.

Jonny Neville, Louis Clarke and Craig Ruddy rounded off our scorers, Ruddy finishing just one place ahead of George Loxton and three ahead of Nick Buckle. Conall McNally and Tom Lole came in seconds apart, followed by Jonny Scott and James Preston, who completed our finishers in the top 200.

Further back, there was a lively and inconsequential exchange between Alex Janiaud and Ross Christie, who regularly swapped places throughout the race - Christie outpacing Janiaud up the hills, Janiaud putting the power down on the flat and down the hills, finishing seconds ahead. James Turner followed home closely behind Christie before Ben Hurley, who was racing a day after his 49th birthday. 

The team was completed by Val Rigori, fresh from a skiing holiday, Rob Kelly - who used the event as a training session in advance of a five mile race in Ireland the following day - Adam Justice and Nicholas Elvidge.