The Belles finished in a rather surprising second place in the London Championships at Parliament Hill beating all our local rivals.

Several of the team had dropped out with injury before the race, but those who took part still made up a strong team.

The crucial thing with this team is the tremendous strength in depth. It couldn't match the strong local club, London Heathside, but did manage to beat Thames Hare and Hounds who had two runners in the top six.

Despite the heavy rain over the previous week, the course was firm with little mud. Luckily, most of the long grass had been nicely trampled by the hordes of school children completing in the London Games before the senior races.

However, Parliament Hill is never an easy course with its undulations, with some remarking that there seem to be no flat stretches on the course at all, leaving runners either climbing or running downhill.

Lea Adamson secured the team’s fastest individual leg, finishing 12th in the standings. Lea is training hard and unlike most of last year, injury free, leaving her able to start showing her true potential.

Natalie Beadle and Sarah Ricemen both posted mid-twenty finishes. Natalie is running better than ever, and Sarah is quickly getting used to the shorter races. It was nice to see her outsprint another runner at the finish.

Beth Brown found the hills hard but nevertheless finished close behind Natalie and Sarah, with the 31st fastest time of the day.

She was followed fairly closely by Liv Papaioannou in 43rd and Mimi Corden-LLoyd in 63rd. There were 252 runners completing the race which again illustrates the strength of the Belgrave women.

RESULTS

1. H. Viner (Highgate) 21:27, 2. B. Wallace (London Heathside) 21:31 , 3. R. Wolfe (THH) 21:36,..... 12. L. Adamson 22:58, 24. N. Beadle 23:55, 27. S. Riceman 24:12, 31. B. Brown 24:16, 43. O. Papaioannou 24:48, 63. M. Corden-Lloyd 25:32.

TEAMS

1. London Heathside, 2. Belgrave Harriers, 3. Thames Hare and Hounds