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When
Birhan Dagne crossed the finish line in front of Temple Newsam House,
Leeds, she became the first ever Belgrave senior winner of the
National Cross Country Championships - male or female. In fact
our only other winner in any event was Kassa Tadesse who won the Men's
Under 20 event in 1994. Birhan twice won the Under 20 title
herself in 1996 and 1997 when running for Woodford Green with Essex
Ladies.
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The
Belgrave tent housed three different team golds at Leeds. The
Senior men's, of course, but also Lily Partridge's gold (fourth scorer
for Aldershot, Farnham & Dist in the under 13 girls) - Lily is the
daughter of Kevin Nash's coach Richard Partridge - and Dorchie Lee's
team gold (fourth scorer for Bristol AC's senior women's outfit) -
Dorchie being Will Cockerell's partner.
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It
was Roger Alsop's last race as Cross Country captain - he was our 9th
man in the nine to score team race. Roger's time as Captain has
spanned the years since around 1995, a season when the only trophy we
took home was the Reigate Priory Holly Run "pot".
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It
was Will Cockerell's 100th run in a Belgrave vest - his first being in
a Rosenheim League 3000m. Will is now moving relentlessly up the list of
Belgravians with the most consecutive runs to their names. He's on
six and if he turns out next year he'll be matching records with the
great Tom Carter.
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Meanwhile,
Don Anderson is going away on the list of most runs all told.
Don has tackled 15 Nationals in Belgrave colours and who knows how
many more in the colours of Surrey AC before they merged with the Bels.
And of course he is the first man to run the National while being
President of the Club - although Leo Coy came close by running the
National the year before he was President.
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The
last time Belgrave's men's team won the team race was in 1948 when the
event was held in Sheffield. Only Mavis Hall was present on both
occasions, although what a "babe in arms" was doing at the
National we can't imagine.
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Many
hands made light work of dismantling the tent and packing up the
baggage - including those of team leader on the day Spencer Barden.
When told that he should be resting after his sterling efforts on the
course Spen replied: "I'll not always be a runner but I
will always be able to help carry the bags." Sounds like a
team manager in the making to your writer!
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Always
game to plug away at the rear end of the field, Andy Lee-Gerrard of
Herne Hill received our normal encouragement, but took time to swerve
over to our supporters and ask about our progress up front. On
being assured that things were going well, Andy gave us the
"thumbs up" and veered back on course. Athletics as it
should be!
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From
the UKA website: Birhan Dagne, who received political asylum after
representing her native Ethiopia as a 17-year-old at the 1995 IAAF
World Cross Country Championships in Durham, only decided to race the
National last Monday. After all, it is only 10 months since she gave
birth to her first-born, Ammanuel. And it is less than three months
since she resumed running. But now she is so determined to run well in
this year’s Flora London Marathon that she lost 5 kilos in her first
three weeks of hard training.
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President
of Belgrave Harriers, Don Anderson, ran a “blinder” – or did he?
The provisional results showed him in 112th place,
several hundred places higher than his best ever and some eight
hundred higher than expected this year.
Then, when the official results were released, his name had
been taken out altogether. Did
he only run two laps? Did
he go through the funnel instead of going round again?
No, seriously we saw him set out on his last circuit enjoying
the knowledge that his team had probably won – and his tally of runs
has gone up to 15 – even if we don’t know where he
placed. Late news: the latest results show him as 957th.
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Past
winners of National Cross Country races who were not Belgravians at
the time of their victory are Gerry North (1962 – Blackpool &
Fylde AC), Pam Davies (1965-1968 - Selsonia AC) and as a Junior,
Andrew Graffin (1998 – Tonbridge AC).