A terrific day for the Belles with an emphatic win in the team championship plus individual gold for Rachel Brown and bronze for Samantha Amend.

The race was held in Beckenham Place Park, a venue now often used for cross country races since the local council abandoned the golf course a few years ago. In fact, it will be used again at the end of January for the South of England Championships. It is an undulating grassland course, soft in places, ideal for cross country.

It was a nervous week for the Belles team manager, with Covid etc reducing the team entry from ten to the bare six required to score. However, the team held together and arrived with the usual positive spirit.

Pacing in this one is tricky; men and women run together and the distance far exceeds any other faced by the women in a cross country season. Both Rachel and Jess Saunders started quickly, with Rachel immediately taking the lead, the others in the team were a little more cautious.

On the second lap Samantha Amend had overtaken Jess to move into third place with Jess not far behind. Brilliantly, Natalie Beadle was in the top ten with Mimi Corden-Lloyd and Laurel Bray both in the low teens.

With a second in 2013, third in both 2015 and 2016, Sam has a fine record in this race. It had taken her two and half hours to drive to the race to support the team and she used all her ultra-running strength and experience to maintain her position. Jess kept Sam in sight for the whole race and her marathon training also proved critical over the distance to hold on for 4th.

Natalie had done some recent fell races up in the Lake District, so she also had the strength to cope with the course. When at home in North Yorkshire, Mimi trains off road on the hills, which can't be avoided, so she also had ideal preparation. Laurel never runs further than 10km, so her exceptional race was a real surprise. These three packed brilliantly to finish 9th, 11th and 12th.

Rachel held the lead until the final climb up past the start on the third lap when she was caught by guest non-scorer Amelia Pettit who runs second claim for Kent and is a past Surrey league winner. Rachel chased her very hard all the way down to the finish but had to concede the overall victory by a mere 4 seconds.

However, she is the South of Thames Champion and will receive the Brian Bolton Cup.

Home club Kent AC won both the six and twelve to score men's trophies and with a score of 88 points assumed they would also take the women's first prize. They were rather shocked when they were told that the Belles had scored an incredible 40 points, the lowest winning score since women were allowed into the race in 2004.

The Belles have had an incredible record in this race over the last ten years.

2011 3rd, 2012 3rd, 2013 1st, 2014 1st, 2015 3rd, 2016 1st, 2017 2nd, 2018 1st 2019 no team, 2020 no race, 2021 1st.

It was good to have Jonathan Neville racing, the only Belgrave man who made it to the start. He much prefers country to road and had a very solid race finishing in 22nd place.

Belles

1. Rachel Brown 46:27, 3. Samantha Amend 48:06, 4. Jess Saunders 48:13, 9. Natalie Beadle 51:08, 11. Mimi Cordon-Lloyd 51:39, 12. Laurel Bray 52:12.

Teams

1. Belgrave Harriers 40, 2. Kent AC 88, 3. Dulwich 93.

Full results

Friday night under the Lights 5-miler, Battersea Park

With the men’s team prioritising the Surrey League this cross country season, it left this weekend free for some superb racing at a high-quality 5-mile meet at Battersea.

Some 13 men went under 24 minutes, including Belgravians Sam Gebreselassie (5th in 23:45) and Alex Brecker (13th in 23:58). James Fox (41st, 25:40), Conall McNally (45th, 25:59) and Tom Lole (66th, 27:02) completed the Bels finishers. Southampton’s Mahamed Mahamed won the race in 23:45.

Full results