A glorious sunny day welcomed athletes to the first Kent league cross-country fixture of the winter at Footscray Meadow, Sidcup. The course looked flat but a couple of deceiving inclines made for tough racing conditions for all of the 75 Blackheath & Bromley youngsters who toed the start line, and the 29 seniors who eventually followed them.
First up and for the first time in this league, were the under 12’s and we saw a great win over the 2K course for Isabella Bruce and a strong 4th from Charlie Thomson in the boys race. Both teams finished in second place.
U12 girls 1st Isabella Bruce, 8th Athena Jannati, 23rd Zoe Winter and U12 boys 4th Charlie Thomson, 15th Noah Coelho Camacho, 24th Quentin Aldridge, 26th Jack Pharoah, 32nd Archie Goulds, 48th Gerard Koziolek.
Our 14 girls had a great turnout of 13 girls with a superb victory for Sophie James followed closely in third by Zara Lett with Lucy Beeraje in sixth helping to claim team gold.
1st Sophie James, 3rd Zara Lett, 6th Lucy Beeraje, 7th Louisa Ball ,11th Lena Aldridge, 12th Ella Nickson, 14th Arianne Paranjpe, 17th Blake Amos, 18th Holly Tallack, 19th Molly Sedgwick, 24th Lilybelle Lewis, 25th Zoe Wilson-Tattida, 33rd Inara Homans- Yau.
Jacob Pearce led the U14 boys home with a with a solid win helping his team to place a strong second
6th Luc Jones, 15th Anthony Streich, 20th Sam Woods, 21st Dylan Birch, 28th Fletcher Kelly, 46th William Jackson, 61st Seb Rayner, 64th Valentin Lechev.
The U16 boys took team gold with a strong 3rd from Emery Aldridge, 5th for Dexter Mein and 8th place for Zachary Evans just in front of Akul Gurunathan in 9th. 13th for Harry Beeraje, 58th Jem Hancock, 60th Lewis Crick and 68th Haydn Kenny.
BBHAC’s U16 girls had a solid 11 strong squad of athletes racing, all contributing to a team silver position. First home for the club in 3rd place was Jazzy Stephens, Harriet Hughes 7th and Ella Rae 12th. 17th Holly Alford Smith, 19th Isabella Jenkins, 20th Charlotte Spencer, 24th Olivia King, 28th Imogen Jenner-Heard, 32nd Clem Ducep, 36th Eva John, 37th Leela Bhadeshia.
Blackheath and Bromley’s U18 boys squad of 13 strong were totally dominant with six of them finishing in the top 8, to claim team gold. An impressive win for Kian Farrell, 3rd for Daniel Horgan, 4th Madalitso Valema-Mwanza, 5th James Bunn, 6th for Johnny Lee, 8th for Ricardo Tomlins, 28th Nathan Crossan, 34th Teddy Hughes, 35th Patrick Doyle, 36th Finn Gotkine, 42nd Aaron Crossan and 43rd Benj Evans. JP Bremerkamp was going well before blisters on his foot burst, making it too uncomfortable to continue.
Our under 18 girls were equally impressive winning team gold with a brilliant individual win for Evie De Bruyn, 6th for Alba Homans-Yau and 9th for Hannah Carter, 14th Celia Yeatman, 22nd Rowan Pearson, 23rd Lily Day, 25th Eliott Amos, 31st Aida Palomares-Dominguez.
At the Kent League the U20 athletes now run with the Senior Women and Senior Men respectively, each over 8km – so quite a step up in distance for many who – with the new age categories applying – are still only 17. Jasmine Mahoney our only athlete in the U20 women’s race placing 10th in that category, while Alex Martin won the U20 mens race with Nathan Clark 4th.
Our first senior finisher of the day was actually our oldest competitor, Jim Phelan who was making a welcome return to cross country competition in the standalone ‘Super Vets’ race, and winning the V75 category.
In the senior women’s race Millie Smith achieved a very impressive victory, winning by more than a minute, with Carys Firth in the top 10, and recent joiner Carla Tarrida-Soler 29th. The squad were 4th in the ‘3 to score’ category and 3rd in the ‘6 to score’ with Jennie Butler (31st), Kelsi Cornish (40th) and Jasmine (44th in the combined U20/SW field) completing the latter. Sarah Belaon (67th), Katy Sugden (91st), and Liz Bunn (96th) completed the turnout.
Notable individual performances in the Senior Mens race included Harry Fage in 8th, Alex Martin counting as 2nd team scorer in 13th in the combined U20/SM standings, and Kevin Fini (22nd) and Mark Bruce (24th) inside the top 10% of a 248 field. We had a total of 19 competing in this event, with the team ranking 3rd of 20 in the ‘4 to score’ category and 4th of 8 in the 12 to score.
The results of the Senior Men and Senior Women count as the first event in the season-long Bennett Cup Handicap series – top 3 on the day were Millie (1st), Carys (2nd), and in 3rd Leon Dr Bruyn. Results of that event are here
