News from South London Harriers
January 6th, 2009: Press Release: Surrey Cross Country Championships 2009
Posted by Brian and Viv at 10:33 pmLast Saturday was a cold but sunny winter’s day in Lloyd Park, where the now traditional venue for the Surrey Cross Country Championships had a new and improved start and finish location alongside the tramway.
South London Harriers always give maximum support to this event and had athletes competing in all of the races, however the club’s entry numbers were reduced by the wave of sickness that is sweeping the country and there were some key runners absent.
The Women’s Under 17 and Under 20 races were merged together and this proved to be South London’s undoubted high spot of the day. From the starting gun, two SLH girls dominated the race. Loulou Rowlands is a fine U17 runner, and she was stride for stride with Georgie Bruinvels, U20, who is also a talented athlete. These two opened a winning gap to the other competitors who were dropping further and further from sight. As the two turned the corner on the rise onto the large loop of the main lap, Loulou started to pull away, and whilst Georgie managed to keep this to less than a dozen yards until the final mile, the die was cast. This gave SLH winners in the U17s and the U20s, in the same race, and two championship gold medals. The team scoring was based on the combined result of both the U17s and U20s and Loulou and Georgie plus Jennie Hewett (who finished 25th) championship silver medals for second team placing.
The Under 20 Men and Under 17 Men also raced as a combined event, and although SLH had a complete team of three for the U20s they were one runner short for the U17s. Michael McManus ran superbly to take 3rd place in the U20s, and along with Daniel Sellman (9th) and Joe Hook (16th) won a U20 team bronze medals. The three competitors in the U17s were Jack Bourne (12th) Ben McDaniel (36th) and Greg Campbell (41st).
SLH’s Under 13 Girls’ team finished 5th, with Sophie Foreman leading them home in a fine 5th place, followed by twins Tessa and Amy Billup (28th and 36th) . The club’s U13 boys managed the same team position, with Tom Holden finishing 6th, followed by Laurence Rook (who despite running strongly for 29th place, was too young to score as a team member), Ben Foreman (32nd), Jamie Male (41st) and Aaron Wells (42nd).
The SLH U15 Girls’ team was one runner short of a scoring four. However, the three girls who took part acquitted themselves well with Helen Wilson 7th, Ruth Myburgh 19th and Francesca Parris 21st.
Adam Atkins (41st) and Max Wheeler (48th) were SLH’s two representatives in U15 Boys’ race.
The final two races of the day were the Senior Women’s and Senior Men’s and SLH’s team scoring for both followed the pattern for 5th placing that was set by the U13 Girls’ and Boys’ teams earlier in the day. First SLH finisher in the Women’s race was Ruth Hutton (17th) followed by other team scorers: Pippa Major (28th), Ciara Williams (29th) and Nicky Morgan (30th). The scoring six of the men’s team were Tom Jenkins (22nd), Dave Baker (34th), Dave Ogden (44th), Mark Butwell (48th), Alex Halpin (61st) and Barry Attwell (65th).
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