Belgrave men and women enjoyed a great day of racing at Wimbledon Park, and scored bronze and silver medals respectively in the Surrey Road racing championships.

Women’s race: 6 waves of 5km

Report by Charlie Dickinson

The Belles finished a fine second place in a 5km team race at Wimbledon Park, the first time since February's National Cross Country that that team has been able to race. The course was the same as the traditional 3-mile Surrey road relay course usually held in September, but with an added 200m or so to extend it to a measured 5km. A dozen teams took part with a member of each team starting at one-minute intervals to allow for social distancing. Each athlete was timed individually, with the combined times of the six athletes used for the team scores. The event was very well organised by Ben Noad with Belgrave’s Don Anderson in charge of the chip timing. 

Michelle Pearson gave the team a terrific start finishing in third place behind two very fast runners and recorded an excellent 17:15 time. Michelle was a little short of training over the last few weeks, having had to work very long hours as a hospital locum. She arrived from Australia in the Spring just as lockdown begun, but has already recorded some fine times on the track and road, and is a great addition to the team.

It was so wonderful to meet up with Sammi Amend again after so many months. Back to her best form and busy training for ultra-distance events, she came straight from running a 10km trail race in Newbury and still ran a very decent time. Most people think the hills on the course give times at least 20, maybe 30 seconds slower than a flat 5km. Sammi was at her enthusiastic best and will be targeting some British record ultra-times next year.

Olivia Papaioannou ran just a few seconds slower than Sammi, and although disappointed with her time, this was still a fine performance. Liv had trained hard over lockdown and was our best performer in the early virtual races, but then suffered from an injury, then had to quarantine after a holiday so lost a little fitness. Since joining the club last Autumn she has been one of the most reliable and important members of the team. 

Orna McGinley and Steph Hewitt are both track athletes who like so many have missed most of the summer season. They both managed to run in a few open races, including the Belgrave track events but missed the usual team competition. Orna has trained in Battersea right through the summer while working flat out in her hospital, only managing one short visit home to Ireland in all that time. Steph spent much of early lockdown at home in Scotland,  but has been back training in London for the last few weeks, all the time working flat out on her PHD. Neither enjoyed running up the hill past the tennis club, but both ran very strongly to help the team. 

The final member of the team was another track athlete, Katie-Ellen French, who has just returned to England after living in Spain for the last eighteen months. Katie has never liked hills at the best of times and in Valencia where she lived there weren't any to practice on. However, she is now back training hard and determined to race herself fit. 

Special thanks for the support by our injured co-captain Mhairi Hall who is greatly responsible for the excellent team spirit.

Results

1. HHH 1:51;55,  2. Belgrave (3. M. Pearson 17:15, 8. S. Amend 18:35, 9. O. Papaioannou 18:42, 12. O. McGinley 18:55, 32. S. Hewitt 19:45, 47. K-E. French 20:47),  3. Kent AC 1:55;57.
   13 teams and 75 runners took part.

Men’s race: 10 waves of 5km

Report by Steve Gardner

Our first team race since lockdown saw the welcome return to competition of Nick Goolab and an incredible debut from the fantastically talented Sam Gebreselassie.

In the first wave (race, not pando) Nick Goolab ran the fastest leg of the whole competition but his high standards meant he was a little unimpressed with his 14:34 clocking, more than a minute off his best as it was. Thirty seconds of that can be accounted for by the hilly course, the other 30 by some off-season rustiness.

Marathon man Reece Edwards made his first appearance for us in a team competition and ran the sixth quickest leg of the day overall, looking very much at home among a handful of London’s finest endurance runners.

On the third leg Callum Stewart was disappointed with his 15:47 but that’s still the equivalent of a 15:17 once course difficulty is factored in, and would have been his second quickest go at the distance.

Leg four saw easily our most remarkable run of the day and probably our most exciting debut in years. Sam Gebreselassie only started running during lockdown and and as recently as September was running only 6-10 miles a week. On Saturday he ran 15:34 on that tough park course. We’re extremely excited about what Sam could achieve with some consistent and structured training with the club.

Ben Hurley was an on-the-day substitute for our 6th wave runner but happily proved to selectors that he should have been in the team all along, running our 8th quickest leg and finishing 4th quickest V45 overall.

Michael McCarthy was a late addition to the team and after a summer of injury niggles we weren’t sure what to expect. His 16:09 equates to about 15:39 on the flat and would have been a huge first sub-16 clocking.

The same goes for Conall McNally, who was severely set back by Covid in early Spring but has since fully recovered and is in the form of his life. His 16:12 would have been another comfortable 15:xx on a kinder course and that official sub-16 can’t be far away now.

Club stalwart Paskar Owor was far from his best on Sunday, running against doctors’ orders, but still made a positive contribution to our score and will rest up now to return soon, we hope.

Alex Mills was just coming off his off-season break and, on the evidence of a couple of quick 5k races this summer, perhaps a little off his best - but it was still a plucky run on the day.

And finally Tommy Taylor made a promising debut after impressing during Charlie’s Battersea sessions over the summer. He showed some great racing grit on the home straight and we’re looking forward to seeing how much better he can get.

We finished fourth overall and second in the Surrey Road championships, a solid start to the winter season even if our increasingly higher standards mean we wanted a little more than that.

Results

1: Nick Goolab (14:34),  6: Reece Edwards (14:58),  20: Samuel Gebreselassie (15:34),  29: Callum Stewart (15:47),  45: Michael McCarthy (16:09),  51: Conall McNally (16:12),  57: Paskar Owor (16:28),  79: Ben Hurly (17:15),  82: Tommy Taylor (17:18),  84: Alex Mills (17:20)

Team results

1. Highate 2:34:48

2. Herne Hill 2:38:53

3. Kent 2:41:12

4. Belgrave 2:41:35

5. Serpentine 2:42:08

6. Hercules Wimbledon 2:44:16

7. Thames H&H 2:46:47

8. Clapham Chasers 2:50:37

9. SLH 2:51:07

10. Victoria Park & TH 3:01:11