It was a great day for the club on Hampstead Heath yesterday as our Senior Men contested the South of England CC Championship at the legendary Parliament Hill course. And all due to an outstanding run which catapulted Ed Shepherd into the club's virtual Hall of Fame.
Hickey, Pearce and Ed Shepherd (photo: Nigel Bramley)
A good sprinkling of young athletes representing their districts travelled to these annual championships on a cold overcast Saturday morning.
These champs have the extra incentive of the first six home being selected to represent Essex at the English Schools in Leeds in March. Moreover, the top 20 would represent Essex next month at Popham in the South East Schools Inter Counties. From these races a further two athletes per age group would be added to the six previously selected for the English Schools.
A recent news item that passed below our radar was Ed Shepherd's triumph in the Cheshire Cross Country Championship. Ed hails from Hertfordshire and joined us while in the sixth form at school. After studying at Birmingham University and then San Francisco, where he had an athletics scholarship, Ed has settled in Chester.
With PBs ranging from 3.47 (1500m) to 65.37 (half-marathon), Ed is no slouch over any distance, and a 21st place finish in the 2018 National CC underlines his quality over any terrain. He represented England at U20 level over the country in 2013.
On 5th January in Warrington Ed took on, and beat, men of the calibre of Nigel Martin (29.55 10K PB) and Dan Cliffe (29.46 10000m PB). His winning margin was a reasonably comfortable 20".
We can hopefully look forward to Ed contributing to our team performance this coming weekend when he is scheduled to make the journey to run the South of England CC.
Ed running for England in 2013
Phil Norman produced a fine performance on his international cross country debut in Belfast on Saturday. Representing England in the Home Countries International, Phil finished 5th Briton overall. First Briton home, 26" ahead of Phil, was 13.30 5000m man Sam Stabler. Next in, 16" up on Phil, was 2015 National CC Champion Charlie Hulson. And 22" behind Phil was 2018 National CC Champion Adam Hickey.
It was a pleasing performance for our Devon-based athlete who insists he is no friend of the mud! Now coached by our Tomaz Plibersek, Phil will be heading back to Northern Ireland next month to do the Armagh 5K road race.
Phil (25) leads the back in Belfast (photo: Coral Norman)
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