Essex & other county CC Championships: Seniors
Our senior teams posted very sound results in the Essex Cross Country Championships on the semi-mythical Hadleigh Country Park course near Southend on Saturday. The men's team won silver and the women's were 1 point away from a set of bronze medals. Making the top 10 were Kevin Murphy and Mark Burgess, and Kat Gundersen and new signing Evie Serventi.
The course was unfamiliar to 99% of our athletes but they had been forewarned as to what to expect - constant steep, muddy uphills and downhills with views over the Thames estuary. To a man, our athletes ran sensibly, guided by the unusual nature of the course, relaxing on the ascents and retaining the energy required to run a solid last mile or two.
We potentially had 8 men vying for the 6 scoring places in the men's 12K event, so good internal competition. And the comeback of 22-year old Mark Burgess, who won this race 4 years ago as an 18-year old but had not raced since the summer of 2007, meant that, regardless of the result, it was a very, very good day for the club.
The men's main rivals were a resurgent Chelmsford squad who have made one or two good signings, developed a quality training group with good spirit, and were organised enough to bring down Leeds-based Gavin Chatterton in their bid for gold.
After the initial sparring had settled down, Kevin Murphy and Mark Burgess ran usually in the 8th-12th range. Darren Southcott opened ambitiously before drifting back and then settling down nicely. Tom Phillips and Angus Holford both paced themselves well and edged through the field as the race progressed. Jim Roche and Harold Wyber (now training for the London Marathon, and already showing improved fitness) were always in the thick of the action in around 20th place. Ed Messer was another potential scorer but never looked fit enough to fulfil that potential.
Amongst the spectators there was a lot of miscounting of Chelmsford vests which led many to think we had won team golds. But it was not the case. They closed in 2, 5, 6, 14, 22 and 27 for a total of 74. Our own scorers were 8 Murphy, 9 Burgess, 16 Phillips, 18 Southcott, 19 Roche and 21 Holford for a total of 91. Colchester Harriers took bronze with 121, and Ilford were 4th with 205.
With 16 finishers in the field of 161, we were the best-represented men's team on the day, and our B team finished in 6th place in the race, compared with Colchester Harriers B team's 10th. Following Wyber (24) and Messer (35), Andy Coleman had a good run for 52. 48" behind came Rob Cox (57) seven seconds in front of his dad Dave Cox (59). Not far behind and closing the B team was John Wallis in 62nd.
Alistair Holford (86) survived last-lap cramps on the ups and used his speed on the downs to stay ahead of Martin Mack (88). Richard Hogg (120) was mainly just happy just to cover the distance.
And, in the wake of team manager Terry McCarthy's pre-race slogan "Fail to prepare = Prepare to fail", Andy Smith became an instant legend. Turning up 8 minutes before the race, he managed to make the starting gun. But he fell over so often during the opening half-mile that he opted to run back to base camp, change his spikes and set off again. He nonetheless succeeded in overhauling 10 men and finished 151.
The women's race saw a debut from new signing, 38-year old Evie Serventi. Evie has been training on Wanstead Flats with Kat Gundersen, Jim Roche, Tomaz Plibersek and Tony Pamphilon, and ran 3:17 in November's New York Marathon. This was a first taste of British cross country for Aussie Evie, and she performed admirably, only slowly losing ground on training partner Gundersen. Behind a trio of Havering women, both W35s ran well and finished 6th and 7th, separated by 50 seconds and just outside the automatic selection places for Essex's inter-counties team. W40 Bernie Pritchett also had a good one, finishing 12th of 82 finishers. Add W40 Linda Jackson (who has resumed training after a long injury) to this trio and we shall have a very competitive women's vets team again.
Despite closing 3 in 12, the team did not close until manager Alex Wardle crossed the line in 52nd place, and we finished 1 point outside the bronze medals and only 7 away from silver. But 4th place it was.
1, Havering 21; 2, Chelmsford 70; 3, Colchester 76; 4, Woodford 77
South of the river-based Daniel Agustus and Lauren Stewart ran the Surrey Championships. Agustus was 4th and was automatically invited to represent Surrey in the inter-counties. Stewart was 11th, her 2nd claim club Thames Hare & Hounds finishing just outside the medals in 4th place.
Hywel Care ran the Merseyside Championship and was extremely disappointed and nonplussed by his 7th place, after finishing 3rd in both 2008 and 2009.
M50 Richard Holland placed 16th in the Cambridgeshire Championship, around 4 minutes down on the winner. He was 1st M50, thus winning a gold M50 medal, and 2nd over-40.
In Suffolk, Matt Barnes-Smith was a very miserable 4th. Since taking on a demanding professional role in mid-December he has struggled to get the training in and struggled over the 12K distance.