Up to Speed

Having won the Oxfordshire County Championship two weeks ago, Jonny Cornish posted a PB of 29:38 to finish fourth out of 183 runners in the Speedway 10km road race organised by Chepstow Harriers in Beachley, near the Welsh border, on Sunday. It was the first time under 30 minutes for Cornish and his time shoots him into third on the HW all-time list, still topped by Club Chairman, Dave Clarke, who clocked 27:50 in Cardiff, back in 1985.

And talking of Cardiff, Ross Franks and Charlie Eastaugh (coming back from injury) pushed each other to PBs of 8:22.86 and 8:28.44 respectively over 3000m at the Non Thomas Welsh Championshps and BMC Indoor meeting in the Welsh capital last Sunday. The two (pictured below left) are aiming to go again on Wednesday over the same distance at Lee Valley.

Picture above by Clifford Hide

Nearer home, on Wimbledon Common, Richard McDowell won the Veteran Athletic Club's M40 Cross Country 4.5M title in 24:03, having overcome the hip pain combined with 'very low Vitamin D', which forced him to take a couple of weeks off running. "I wasn't sure I was even going to start', he confessed. With better preparation McDowell would have been expected to win the race overall, but in the event he was pipped by Mike Cummings (M35) of Herne Hill. 'I sat on his shoulder until near the top of the climb on the second lap, and was working harder than I would have liked, so let him go', he explained. 'Had I dug deep I would have stuck with him for a bit longer, but the end result probably wouldn't have been any different.'

Tom Morris and Peter Giles also won gold in the M60 and M75 categories respectively, while Tom Cheetham took silver in the M50 category.

Class Acts

HW youngsters were out in force last weekend competing for their Boroughs in the Surrey Schools Cross Country Championships at at Priory Park, Reigate.

After two winning weekends in which she took the Surrey County U17 Women's title followed by the Surrey League race on Wimbledon Common, Ellen Weir narrowly failed to make it a hat-trick when she finished runner-up in the Intermediate Girls race.  Ellen led in a quartet of HW athletes: Lulu Weisz, who was 13th, Millie Thorpe, 15th, and Anya Stacey, 55th. Ellen, Lulu and Millie have been selected to represent Surrey in the Inter-county match at Chelmsford on February 1st. 

Rosie Speed, who is also one of Britain’s top young tennis players, finished 17th out of 89 runners in the Junior Girls race, and was also invited to run for Surrey at Chelmsford. Lauren Armitage was 25th. Anya Montgomerie was 45th, five places ahead of Sophie Thorpe. Twins Charlotte and Sophie Conway were 58th and 59th, with Bailey O’Leary 62nd, one place and one second ahead of Anna Barker. Yasmin Hussein was 87th.

In the Junior Boys Championship Benjy Street was 23rd, Connor Foley 26th, Oliver Holden 56th, Luke Gadd 79th and Jude Goldsmith 83rd. In the Intermediate Boys Championship Adam Hammadi was 41st out of 84 runners.

Tomorrow, Saturday,  HW teams from U13 to Senior will be competing in the Southern Cross Country Championships on Parliament Hill.

Storming Start for Theo

HW International sprinter, Theo Etienne, launched his season in great form when he clocked 6.63 to finish second behind Chijindu Ujah over 60m in the London U20 and Senior Indoor Games at Lee Valley last weekend, a meeting peppered with internationals. It was Etienne's fastest time over the distance since 2017. 

In separate 60m races Antonio Douglas posted 7.11, while Devonte Casely-Hayford notched up a PB of 7.31, and there was a season's best for fellow HW athlete/coach, Kashane Gayle (U23), who clocked 7.38. Pete McLeod clocked 7.95.
Full results below.

This weekend it is the turn of the U13-U17s at the London Indoor Games with leading sprinter Freddie Arkell competing in his first season as an U17 in the 60m and 200m. Last year as an U15 Freddie won both the Indoor and Outdoor National Championships over 200m and finished the season ranked number one in the UK.

Results
 

Saturday 18/Sunday 19 January: London U20/Senior Games, Lee Valley  Full results

Saturday, 18 January: VAC Cross Country Championships and Masters Open race, Wimbledon Common  Full results  Power of Ten

Sunday, 19 January: Non Thomas New Year Open inc. South West England, Welsh Masters, Welsh Athletics Senior 3000m Championships & BMC Races, Cardiff  Full results

Sunday, 19 January: Speedway 10km, Beachley  Full results