Belgrave women are London cross country champions
Belgrave’s women won the London cross country championships at Parliament Hill, with Samantha Amend winning individual gold for fastest masters athlete.
This was believed to be the first time that a Belgrave team had even medalled in these SEAA Championships, let alone won. The last time a Belles team had run in this race was back in 2016. Originally, the women's team had planned to run in the South of Thames 5-mile race at Morden Park, but the venue was belatedly switched to Aldershot and in the meantime the majority of the team opted for this race on Parliament Hill instead.
Theirs was a brave choice considering the fine record the Belles have had in the South of Thames over the last eight years; three wins and another three second or third places and an individual win for Saron Haileselase in 2018. It was also unusual for the two races to be held on the same weekend.
With little rain over the last week or so, Parliament Hill was fairly benign, muddy in parts, but many of the paths were quite hard and dry. Of course, it's still not an easy circuit with its twists and turns and tough hills.
Belgrave were led home by Rachel Brown and Olivia Papaioannou in 6th and 7th place after a furious sprint for the line narrowly won by Rachel. Then in 21st place came Jess Saunders improving her speed with every race after her excellent marathon in October. In 24th, working through the field very strongly after the first lap, Samantha Amend who left the other W40's way behind to easily claim gold in that category.
The three non-scorers, so important to the team, all ran very well. Ella-May Hards loved the tough cross-country course and finished in 34th, Sarah Dewhirst ran very strongly in 60th, and it was so good to see Beth Brown back in the top 100 after an injury-hit Autumn. There were 289 finishers which illustrates the strength in depth the Belles have.
Your team manager had totted up the scores as the runners finished and told the team he thought they may have got second or third. They were then led off on a very long warm down by ultra-runner Sam while the official results were being checked. When at last the results appeared, he realised he had mistaken the blue vest of the Cambridge Harrier winner for a TVH athlete, thinking TVH had won. So, when Sam eventually brought the team back after their warm down, Charlie said:
"Sorry, I made a mistake, you didn't get 2nd or 3rd place,"
Crestfallen faces, a long pause and then,
"YOU WON!"
Smiles all round!
INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
1. H. Dixon (Cambridge H) 22:19, 2. G Holden (QPH) 22:41, 3. H. Cox (Fulham) 22:48,....6. R. Brown 23:08, 7. O. Papaioannou 23:09, 21. J. Saunders 23:46, 24. S. Amend 23:51, 34. E-M. Hards 24:37, 60. S. Dewhirst 25:27, 91. B. Brown 26:34. 289 finished.
TEAMS
Belgrave Harriers 58, 2. Thames Valley Harriers 63, 3. London Heathside 89.