Triple-A Belles win gold at National XC relays in Mansfield
Belgrave Harriers are national champions for the first time since 2009 thanks to a dominant display at the National Cross Country Relay Championships in Mansfield.
Photo: Mark Shearman
A magnificent performance by the 'A' team of Kate Axford, Gemma Astin and Sarah Astin brought the Belles their first ever National Cross-Country title in the 3-Stage relay at Mansfield. Their winning margin over The Aldershot 'A' team was a remarkable 40 seconds, about 200m over the 3 X 3km race.
On a terrific day for the club, the Belles 'B' and 'C' teams also ran brilliantly to finish 10th and 25th out of 130 teams that started the race.
The weather was atrocious; persistent and heavy rain all day with temperatures never rising above 7 degrees. But this didn't dampen the spirit of the nine Belles who made the long journey to Berry Hill Park. With the many younger age group races taking place before the two senior races, the grass and woodland course became at best soft, at worst deep mud.
This was the first time Kate Axford had ever run in these conditions, so she sensibly stuck with a leading group of four who broke away from the large field as they wound their way through the twisting part of the course in the woods. Kate made her break up the hill as they came out of the woods and kept pushing on. Although chased hard by the Aldershot athlete, she held on for a lead of three seconds which ended up as the second fastest of the day.
Kate Axford is tracked by Cambridge’s 1:59 800m runner Louise Shanahan on leg one. Photo: Mark Shearman
After running as a youngster for her home club on the Isle of Man, with her other two Astin sisters and then years ago as a student at St Mary's in Twickenham, Gemma Astin has only been back training for about a year after a gap of ten. However, only last month after joining Belgrave, she broke the club record for the half marathon running 71:54 in Manchester.
Here, she powered away on leg two and quickly established a large lead over the Aldershot 'A' team who fell back and were overtaken by their 'B' team runner who marginally produced the fastest leg of the day. So, at the end of stage two, the Belles had a huge lead of 30 second over the Aldershot 'B' team.
On her debut in claret and gold, Gemma Astin grits her teeth through a solo leg two in which she extended Belgrave’s lead over Aldershot from 3 to 34 seconds. Photo by Mark Shearman
Who better to trust on the final leg than National Cross-Country Champion, Sarah Astin? Unaware of the size of her lead and concerned about the possibility of being caught, Sarah held back just a little on the first part of the course in case she needed to produce a strong finish. She needn't have worried, her lead at the end of the race over the Aldershot 'A 'team, who by then had overtaken their 'B' team, was a massive 40 seconds.
In another illustration of the strong depth of this team, the Belles 'B' team of Kristina Popadich, Lea Adamson and Felicity Harrison, finished in 10th place, only two places shy of our 'A' team in 2022 and ahead of all the other local London clubs. All three produced times in the top fifty fastest of the 354 athletes who ran on the day.
Our 'C' team of Karen Xiang, Emma Gordon and Clemmie Cooper, also ran very well to finish 25th out of 130 teams that started the race, a very impressive achievement. A special mention and a big thank you to Emma and Clemmie who both agreed so enthusiastically to step in as replacements, Clemmie only coming into the team the day before. That team spirit so important to the club.
At the end of the day, there seemed to be as much rain and mud inside the tent as outside, but although very tired, cold and wet, it was a very happy and satisfied group of Belles who left Mansfield and made the long journey back to London at the end of an historic day for the club.
l-r: Kate Axford, Gemma Astin, Sarah Astin. Photo: Mark Shearman