Chichester Priory 10k inc. ERRA Championship

Silver medals again in the National 10k

In the last seven years Belgrave have claimed silver medals in the National 10k Championship on no less than six occasions - an argent streak broken only by our golden strike of 2003. Tipton, Salford, Morpeth, Wells City, Newham & Essex Beagles and now Bedford have all taken turns as champions over that period - but the one consistent statistic as the race has been held up and down the country is the presence of the Belgrave squad on the podium.

In this year's championship, Simon Jones, Stephen Sharp and Jonathan Blackledge all ran a little slower than they'd have liked - as did James Kelly who was next Belgravian in behind our scoring trio - but up at the front of the race although not yet eligible to score, Russell Dessaix-Chin carried the Belgrave colours to a superb victory in a personal record of 29:38 (he has run 29:15 on the track).

Russell tested the leading group at 2k, hoping to provoke a reaction which might step up the pace to course record lick (29:02) but settled back into the group when he found no takers. Another little tester came at 5k which reduced his companions to just Boneham (Notts AC) and Draper (Bedford) but nobody could respond to the Belgrave man's decisive break at 7k.

As an Australian, Russell has now won three national championships but none of them in his own country - the New Zealand track 10k, the New Zealand Cross Country and the English Road 10k.

Bedford's three scoring men clocked up a total of 90:28 while Belgrave's men were 30:23, 30:48 and 30:54 for a total of 92:05.

Knut Hegvold won his M40 age group with 33:19 while Birhan Dagne was 5th individual in the women's race - 34:51.

Men. 1 R Dessaix-Chin (Belgrave) 29:38; 11 S Jones 30:23; 17 S Sharp 30:48; 19 J Blackledge 30:54; 25 J Kelly 31:30; 45 K Hegvold (1-M40) 33:19.

Women. 1 C Hoyte (Arena 80) 33:27; 5 B Dagne 34:51.

Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.