Mighty in Mitcham
A break in the dreary weather, a resounding team win and a long-waited individual victory from GB international Stuart McCallum – what a Saturday on Mitcham Common for the Club's senior men's squad. 'Awesome running from all on a lovely sunny autumn day; and great for Stu to finally debut in the Surrey League', enthused team manager, Dave Grima. After two matches, the Club sits at the top of the Division 1 table, 181 points ahead of second place Belgrave Harriers.
'I really enjoyed the race', says Stuart, 'my first cross country in 18 months after being out last year – and it was so good to see the squad packing runners and putting on such a dominant performance. It shows the strength of the training group at the moment' .
Stuart moved through the pack into the lead on the first of three laps and never looked back, coming home 11 seconds ahead of Guildford & Godalming's Andy Coley-Maud. Let's put this in perspective: the last individual winner for HW was Alex Bruce-Littlewood back in November 2010. Alex, then an U23, out-sprinted 12-time individual winner Paskar Owar of Belgrave Harriers to clinch victory at Denbies Vineyard in Dorking – though the race was actually won by non-scorer, GB International Frank Tickner of Wells City in 24:21.
For memory-lane-trippers, the second scorer for HW on that day was U20 Liam White in 6th (League position) – but underlining just how far the current squad has come since those days, the next men home was newcomer James Hogg in 22nd, followed by team stalwarts Justin Kelly in 27th, Phil Glynn in 38th, and Matt Sharp in 51st. Jamie Helmer was 55th, with V40 Peter Lee (66th), U20 Geordie Logan (77th), and V35 Deon Coetzee in 80th completing the scoring team. Current team manager Dave Grima was eleventh man home in 85th!
By comparison on Mitcham Common on Saturday, eight of the ten scorers finished in the top 20 as Stuart was backed up by Dan Cliffe in 5th, and then followed a barely broken block of gold and scarlet: Charlie Eastaugh in 9th, U23 Henry Silverstein in 10th, Alex Milne in 11th, George Mallett in 13th and team captain James Stockings in 14th. Behind him in 23rd was his predecessor as captain, Fred Slemeck, back in cross country mode after the Amsterdam marathon last month. Rhys Boorman in 34th, and Richard McDowell in 41st closed out the scoring team. Equally impressive were the B team, who finished second behind Belgrave.
Above: a trail of runners in winner Stuart McCallum's wake (thanks to Pete Clarke for the photograph); and below: Flashback to Alex Bruce-Littlewood closing in on Belgrave's Paskar Owar at Denbies Vineyard, Dorking in November 2010 (photo by the late Ray O'Donoghue).
'Excellent performances all round, showcasing our strength, depth and clear intent to retain the title!' echoed team captain James, who had predicted a two-horse race with Belgrave after the first match in Richmond Park, in which HW finished in second by just two points. On Mitcham Common, however, Belgrave were outstripped by Kent who finished second. 'There was a real buzz around the team flag after the race', says James. 'It's a testament to the hard work of so many behind the scenes that we are able to rotate and bring in such high quality runners, that all of the guys are regular faces on a Tuesday night, that those not competing wanted to come along and support, and finally that we stuck around to catch up afterwards!'
Let's not forget that these matches are a whole Club effort in which every opposition vest overtaken counts, and it is indicative of the whole squad spirit that 34 runners turned out in Mitcham, and 33 for the first fixture in Richmond Park on 14 October, where the groundwork was laid as the team finished in second by a mere two points to Belgrave.
After two matches, the evolving Senior Women's A team (five to score) are sitting in 7th position. In Match One they finished as seventh A team (ninth overall) led in by team captain Claire Grima in 36th, whose long-standing commitment to Club teams is underlined in Tom Pollak's newspaper report on the Denbies match in 2010 (see Senior Men's report above) – who should have been first home for HW on that occasion, but Claire in 21st position!
A clash with the Regional Final of the English Schools Cross Country Cup in St. Albans on Saturday meant that several of the juniors were missing across the age groups, offering a chance for others to step up and score, and in the case of the U13s keep both the Boys and Girls at the top their respective tables after two matches.
The U13 Boys were victorious once again, and two of the team, Theo Creed and James Fraser, were so keen not to miss out on the Surrey League that, says coach Andrew Davies, 'they ran in St Albans in the Junior Boys event and made it back in time to race for us. Theo won both races, and James was 5th in the schools competition and 6th in the league match. As their coach it is not something I would have suggested, but they wanted to do it, and I guess that demonstrates the characteristic of this group, which is teamwork and commitment'. As a result the winning team consisted of Theo in first, James in 6th, Thomas Hennigan in 15th and Cyrus Sheikh in 16th.
For the U13 Girls, Freia Harper-Tee finished in 4th and Beatrice Eminson in 8th, with Sofia Amrani Hussain in 26th and Beatriz Pina-Harper in 29th bringing the team home in third place.
The U15 Girls are second in their table after two matches and the U17 Women third. Top U15 scorers from match 1, Isabella Harrison and Otelia Garcia-Davis, were also away in action in St Albans, where they finished first and third respectively in the Intermediate Girls race. Nevertheless the U15 Girls were third: Ava McAndie finished in 10th, with Iona Alexander in 20th, Julia McDonnell in 23rd, and Summer McDougall in 26th, while it was the turn of the U17s to finish in second, thanks to Lara Delport (9th), Grace Eminson (10th), Dillan Quinn (12th) and Sophia Anderson in 14th.
While U17 Benjy Street was finishing second in the Senior Boys race at St Albans, in one of the best results of the day the combined U15 Boys/U17 Men team improved dramatically on their seventh place in Match 1, as Jack Holden (12th), Noah Fernandez (15th) Alexander McGuigan (17th) and Tom Davies (27th) came home in second place on Mitcham Common.
English Schools Cross Country Cup, Regional Final, London North Full results
Racing in the Rain
Eight athletes travelled to Mansfield on 5 November for the National Cross-Country Relays in Berry Hill Park, a high-powered event which sees only four athletes per team take on 5km legs over an undulating, twisting and turning course.
In the mud and torrential rain the A team finished in 25th, with U23 Henry Silverstein leading off, handing over in 46th (in 16:29) to Charlie Wyllie who, despite a calf twinge, pulled the team up to 33rd (in 16:32). Archie Walton moved into 24th in 16:41, handing over to Alex Sutton, who brought the team home in 25th in 17:06 on his debut for the A team. The B team of Ryan McAlister, Chris McIlroy, Richard Jones and James Hamilton finished in 97th.
Full results
Southern Stars
Medal-winning is becoming something of a habit for the U13 Boys squad, who turned out two teams for the Southern (SEAA) Cross Country Relays on 21 October – and were rewarded with the gold medals for the A team of James Fraser, Max Harrison, and Theo Creed. James kicked off with a time of 7:06, handing over in third place to Max who took the lead in 7:22, with Theo holding station in 6:55.
The B team of Tommaso Crosara (7:46), Joseph Sutherland (7:43), and Thomas Hennigan (8:01) were 12th. The incomplete team of Sam Dyson (6:59) and Max Williams (7:05) combined to produce a time of 14:04.9 which was good enough for 27th place out of the 39 teams entered.
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Long Shots
Long Shots
Dominic Kiralyfi (right, running in the colours of his US club, Central Park Runners) finished 73rd out of 52,615 runners in the New York Marathon on 5 November, notching up super-consistent splits to finish in 2:32:52. His time was just outside the PB he set in London in April, but equally satisfying, given the slower nature of the NYC course.
Mark Cahill (M50) ran in the Dublin marathon on 29 October, finishing in 4:05:44. The race, over a single lap which begins and ends in the city centre, attracts over 16,000 entries. 'I've done it most years since 2012 with the exception of 2017, when I had an injury, and lockdown of course', says Mark who hails from 'the fair city'. 'It all went really well this year, despite the rain throughout!'.
Fred Slemeck took on his second marathon in Amsterdam on 15 October, finishing 57th of 16070 finishers in 2:26:12. He had hoped to better his time of 2:25:53 set in London in April, and tantalisingly was slightly up on his previous time at 40km. Nevertheless he declared himself, 'not unhappy' with his race. 'I never really felt good, so I was pleased to stick it out', he says.
Closer to home on 22 October, Eoin Brady ran his first ever marathon in the more sedate surroundings of Abingdon, Oxfordshire. 'Choosing a small, local race, rather than a big city event meant that 'the start line was simple to navigate' he says. 'I just walked to a spot near the front ten minutes before the start.'
Last year he trained for the Manchester marathon, but failed to make the start line due to injury,' The build-up was going fine, then I went mountaineering for a week in the middle of it and did no running. I tried to jump back in, ignored a small muscle twinge and then injured myself by trying run through it in a hard 30km around Richmond Park. I could barely walk for a day afterwards. So I thought I should try to mitigate that risk this time around!', he says.
'I did a good, structured block of training for around two months ahead of the race, aiming to follow a pattern of one regular session, one marathon-specific session and a solid long run every week. I did the priority club races – the Southern Road Relays and Surrey League Cross-Country – and the Battersea half-marathon (finishing in 73:13) and tried to stick fairly closely to the training patterns of Keith and Ben's group, with variations where I thought I needed it. And I didn’t take a week off in the middle of the build-up this time!'
He averaged 120km per week over the block, 'an increase of 20 per cent on what I'd done in the past', stuck to the weekly strength and conditioning session he introduced after his aborted marathon training last year, and made sure to practice the all important intake of gels and drinks.
'On race day the conditions were perfect', he says: '13 degrees and dry, with no wind'. Having set himself a target of 2:30, when the eventual winner 'whizzed off into the distance', he found himself in a pack of four, two of whom were aiming for the same time so, he says, ' we settled into a good rhythm, but at a pace that was slightly too slow for 2:30', but no-one seemed keen to speed up. 'I felt like pushing it myself but I thought it would be risky', he confesses.
Below: Eoin taking to the Oxfordshire roads for his first marathon. Thanks to the Abingdon Marathon volunteer photographers for the picture.
'The group only slightly broke up after 32km and when the athlete in front of me slowed considerably, I overtook him at around 39km and crossed the line in 2:32:49 for second place, 9 seconds ahead of the third placed athlete'. The winner, Alex Teuten of Southampton AC, finished in 2:19:22, the 24th fastest time run by an British athlete this year.
'Overall, I'm very pleased with how the race went', Eoin reflects, 'and I know that training and racing with the Hercules group over the past year helped massively with achieving this performance.'
Back in the USA M35 Stuart Byrne finished the Chicago Marathon on 8 October in 2:38:20, in 439th out of 27713 finishers, slicing over 4.5 minutes from his PB in the process.
On the same day Stefan Shipp finished the Lisbon marathon in 336th place out of 4816 runners, covering the coastal and riverside course, which begins in the beautiful seaside town of Cascais and finishes in Lisbon's famous harbour-facing square, Praça do Comercio, in 3:15:19. Meanwhile on the same Sunday Stewart Bond (M50) completed the Munich event, which starts and finishes in the Olympic Stadium, in 3:41:06.
Earlier on 7 October Adam May challenged himself to the Epping Forest Ultra 50K, where he finished seventh out of 165 finishers and second in the M40-44 category in 4:05:36. This was the third edition of the event which begins in Wanstead Flats and makes its way north through the green spaces of East London and into Epping Forest.
Hercules athletes were also out and about running half marathons. On 22 October, Ed Mallett finished in second in the Monza21run around the iconic Autodromo Nazionale Monza Formula One circuit, known as 'the temple of speed'. His time of 70:00 was outside his best over the distance but he ran almost the whole of the race solo, just over 2 minutes behind the winner and over 3 minutes clear of the third placed athlete.
On the same date James Stockings was in Slovenia, racing in the Ljubljana Half Marathon with teammates from Lamar University in the USA, where he studied on a track and field scholarship. He finished 11th in 72:24, passing much of the field throughout the later stages.
Jonny Cornish improved on a three year old PB, finishing third in the Bath Half on 15 October in 65:05.
Jamie Bannister won the Strathaven Run with the Wind 10K in 35:10 on 5 November over a South Lanarkshire course which is uphill over the first half with a speedy descent on the way back; while on 22 October George Mallett ran in the Abbey Dash 10K in Leeds, where he finished 46th in 31:28.
Closest to home, Andrew Penney set a new PB in the Cabbage Patch 10 Mile race in Twickenham on 15 October, where he finished fourth in 49:39, a time which moved him up from 19th to ninth on the Club's all-time ranking list.
Southern Masters
A small but select group of Masters competed in the Surrey County Masters Cross Country Championships on 28 October at Nonsuch Park.
Peter Giles claimed the gold medal in the M75 category, while Craig Howard was 22nd in the M45 race, Ben Revill finished in 21st in the M50 race, and Tom Cheetham was 21st M55. In the M60 category, Richard Evans was 9th, and Charles Hampden Smith 13th. The only woman to enter this year, Estle Viljoen (W50), finished in 6th.
