Southern CC 2024: Joel & Ed are pick of U20s and Seniors at Beckenham
The South of England Cross Country Championships were held at Beckenham Place Park for the third consecutive year, and the consensus was that the course had been got broadly right at the third time of asking. Two years of tweaking had finally eliminated excessive lapping on the Senior Men’s old four-lap course, and reduced the long sections on a hard surface. Recent weather also produced the first serious mud to be encountered here across three editions.
The standout performers were Joel Doye, who finished 6th in the U20 Men’s race, and Ed Shepherd, 16th in the Senior Men’s. Joel had been disappointed not to have defended his Essex title earlier this month owing to illness, but he has clearly recovered and built on his excellent fitness from late 2023. Joel’s is the highest placing by a Woodford man in an U20 Southern since Ed’s own 3rd place in 2014. Ed himself is in training for his debut marathon, and given his storming finishes in previous senior Southern champs would no doubt have pulled an additional few places forward had the race been the full advertised 15km.
Tom Beedell was our second senior man in, in 49th but mixed emotions. He was pleased to notch up another top 50 placing (just!) though didn’t feel his performance was too dissimilar to last year which has yielded 12 places higher. Dan Steel was unfortunate to just miss the top 100, in 102nd, which corresponded to an impressive 43 place improvement on last year. Dan has clearly benefited from this block of marathon training with Seville only three weeks away, and worked his way forward through the field to take 33 seconds out of Angus Holford, a 45-second swing from the Essex Champs 3 weeks ago. Angus, who was 121st, was mainly pleased to have got a calf niggle that afflicted his last month’s training well under control. Josh Entwistle’s stretch goal for the day had been to replace his “Holkham 2007” Southerns hoodie, and with that safely achieved, settled down to race with no pressure. He delivered a steady run, staying at or around his final 126th place all the way through. Simon Beedell, was next in, in 368th, with a sterling run on “legs that felt like concrete” to ensure that the team was closed and on the first page of results in 15th.
At the start of the day, the team managers had targeted 10th place. In the event, 12th place and Essex bragging rights would have been achieved with just 20 points fewer, but 10th would have needed another 220 points and the presence of at least one of our late withdrawals. They won’t look wistfully at the 5th or 6th place that last week’s provisional team could have achieved for long: Instead, we look forward to 2025 when Joel will join the ranks, and we yet again set about trying to get the dream team of the current senior squad together!
Our sole Senior Woman was Alicia McArdell, who finished 77th, a personal-best position for a senior southern, edging out her 80th place from 2 years ago.
An honourable mention also to second-claimer James Stockings, whose 25th place in the Senior Men’s race helped Hercules Wimbledon to team silver.
A week earlier Tony Pamphilon triumphed in the V65 category at the Veterans AC championships, held on the classic Wimbledon Common course, earning a coveted picture-and-caption (scroll down 2/3 page) in Athletics Weekly’s cross-country roundup.