Third Past the Post

HW's senior men's team continued their impressive run of performances, taking the men’s bronze medals in the London Championships on Parliament Hill last Saturday. They were also top Surrey and South London club. 

First home for the scoring team of four was Fred Slemeck who was sixth of almost 500 finishers, covering the 9.9 kilometres in 37:27. Finn Johnson was 11th in 38:08, Andrew Penney, coming back to fitness and in his first race for the club this winter, finished 14th in 38:40 and Hussein Ahmed completed the scoring team in 21st, clocking 39:27.

Joe Clark was 23rd in 39:37, one second and one place ahead of Xavier Gruot. David Lewin was 92nd in 42:28 and teenager Tommasi Forni 184th (and 5th U20) in 45:47, just two places ahead of John Bull (45:51) with Simon Woodley 281st in 48:34. Mark Cahill was 380th in 53:03, with Gabriel Durand finishing fifth U20 (474th overall) in 62:17.

In the women's 5.5km Championship Claire Grima was 19th of more than 300 runners, finishing in 24:50. Alison Purnell was 83rd in 27:39, Lisa Thomas 136th in 29:24 and Marilena De Luca 228th in 33:30.

At the same venue 40 HW youngsters were also in action for their boroughs in the London Youth Games Championships. In the Women's U17 3km race Ellen Weir, representing Merton, was runner-up out of 104 runners, in 11:49, just seven seconds behind the winner. Georgie Clarke led Wandsworth to third team place, finishing fifth in 12:06 with Niamh Thompson (Merton) 19th in 12:47. Selma Hegvold (Hammersmith & Fulham) was 45th in 14:03 with Alix Baccardax (Richmond) 51st in 14:13 and Rebekah Riches (Wandsworth)  61st in 14:44.

In the U15 Girls 2km race Lulu Weisz finished fifth out of 221 runners in 8:07, leading the Merton team to sixth team place. Millie Thorpe (Merton) was 11th in 8:20, two seconds ahead of Georgia Winter in 13th, second scorer for Wandsworth, who finished in fourth. Ore Adewale (Wandsworth) was 42nd in  8:48 and Millie Doyle (Wandsworth) 45th in 8:51.

First HW finisher in the U13 Girls 2km race was Sophie Thorpe who was 50th out of 247 runners in 9:05, leading the Merton team to 12th place. Sophie Conway (56th in 9:09)  and Elena Hernandez (66th in 9:13) were the other Merton scorers. Miona Ivanovic, representing Hammersmith & Fulham, was 62nd in 9:11 with Charlotte Conway (Merton) 68th in 9:14 and Grace Eminson (Wandsworth) 83rd in 9:24. 

In the U11 Girls race over 1.5km,  Ava McAndie (11th in 7:14) and Emily Dunipace (26th in 7:29) both scored for the Wandsworth team which finished third. Josie Hughes (also Wandsworth) was 47th in 7:41.

Of the HW boys in action Morgan Rennie (Merton) was 43rd in the U17 race in 19:08 and Edward Newton (Wandsworth) 74th in 20:33. In the U13 Boys race the leading HW finisher was Oliver Warbey who finished 31st in 8:17, scoring for the Merton team who finished in 9th. Next HW home was Matt Weisz (also Merton), who was 85th in 8:40.

At the other end of the age scale on Saturday, M75 Peter Giles (above) was top finisher in his age group, and 19th overall, in the British and Irish Masters International 6km race at Aintree, Liverpool in 25:22.

Results

Saturday, November 16th, London Cross Country Championships, Parliament Hill. Full results
Saturday, November 16th, London Youth Games Cross Country Championships, Parliament Hill. Power of Ten Borough results summary
British & Irish Masters International, Aintree, Liverpool. Full results