Belles round-up: Surrey League domination, medals missed at Southern XC Relays

The defending champions kicked off their Surrey League campaign with an astonishing 26 point haul. Elsewhere, the team put in a good performance at the Southern Cross Country Relay championships.

An electrifying start to the Surrey League

Belgrave's women convincingly won both the A and B team races in the first Surrey League match at Hurst Green. In fact the A team  probably scored the lowest points total ever in the league finishing with just 26 points for their five scorers.

All five finished in the first eight places, with Juliet Hodder in second place, just missing out on her first win in the league, and Emily Bradley close behind in third with an excellent run. They were closely followed by the trio of Mimi Corden-Lloyd, Ruby Whyte-Wilding and Alex Barbour in sixth, seventh and eighth, all with easily their best ever league performances.   

This was the first time newly promoted Holland Sports had hosted a Division 1 match. They organised it very well, and many enjoyed the bar and BBQ outside the pavilion after the race in the autumn sunshine. 

The fastest Belles owed much to Abbey Brooke who led them out at a ferocious pace, conscious of the sharp left turn shortly after the start, and the narrow paths through the woods. Abbey did tire a little over the latter stages, but hung on for a fine 11th place leading in the B team. 

Abbey was followed by Felicity Harrison in 17th fast returning to her best and Alex Gandee, a strong run in the early 20's. 

The B team were completed by Samantha Munday running despite not feeling 100%, and Eilidh Hide in her first race for the club. Both finished in the 40's. 

The team continued to finish thick and fast. Emily Goff and Emilie Arnoux both in the 50s, then Holly Pan, Bethan Goddard, Emily Barrett and Sara Ridmy all well in the top 100. Finally, Bea Lafreniere did well in her first race for the club and Marianna Papat finished with over 100 runners behind her.

RESULTS

  1. R. Carter (HW) 20:53, 2. J. Hodder 21:00, 3. E. Bradley 21:05, 6. M. Corden-Lloyd 21:18, 7. R. Whyte-Wilding 21:23, 8. A. Barbour 21:29, 11. A. Brooke 21:45, 17. F. Harrison 22:12, 44. S. Munday 23:52, 48. E. Hide 23:57, 56. E. Goff 24:19, 59. E. Arnoux 24:31, 66. H. Pan 24:38, 72. B. Goddard 24:48, 82. E. Barrett 25:06, 95. S. Ridny 25:44, 106. B. Lafreniere (W45) 26:02, 126. M. Papat 26:36. 228 finished.

TEAMS 

A TEAMS. 1. Belgrave  26, 2. Herne Hill  82, 3. Kent AC  131. There are 15 division 1 teams. 

B TEAMS. 1. Belgrave  142, 2. Herne Hill 212, 3. Kent AC 369. 

Credit: @activatetheburners

Belles narrowly miss out on podium at Southern XC relays

A terrific last leg by Alex Barbour, easily the fastest of the day, was just not quite enough to win medals for the Belles A team.  Nevertheless it was another good day with the four teams finishing 4th, 7th, 9th and 15th out of 33 who completed the race. 

A team

On the first leg, Saron Haileselase started with the leaders but fell back after half way, hampered by a sore hip. She finished strongly, gamely bringing the team home in fifth. Alex Gandee on leg two ran a very solid race, her time 90 seconds faster than a year ago shows her improvement. But the team remained in fifth place. Alex Barbour soon moved the team up to fourth, but had started a long way behind the three leading teams. Despite a tremendous effort, she finished just a handful of seconds behind silver and bronze positions. 

  1. S. Haileselase 10:05, 2. A. Gandee 10:02, 3. A. Barbour 9:19.

B team

Another runner rapidly improving is Billie McClosky, whose strong run was only two places behind the A team at the change over. Thankfully, Lara Mangan is slowly returning to full fitness after her hip injury, and she ran the fastest B team leg.  Alice Bennett was a late addition to the team, but ran well to bring the team home in an excellent 7th place.

  1. B. McClosky 10:28, 2. L. Mangan 10:23, 3. A. Bennett 10:59.

C team (The Em team)

Emma Rowland finished just behind Billie with her best run so far for the club. Emily Barrett took over and maintained the team's position. Then, although she has a very isolated stage, Emilie Arnoux finished the team off very well in ninth place.

  1. E. Rowland 10:31, 2. E. Barrett 11:00, 3. E. Arnoux 11:33. 

Charlie Dickinson