Senior men 7th in best Southern for a decade
Three Woodford senior women and seven men contested the South of England Cross Country Championships on 24th January. Oliver Bushdari improved 5 places on his standout debut last year to finish 23rd in the 15k men’s race, leading the team to 7th place, the team’s best position since 2016.
The championships were held for the 5th consecutive year at Beckenham Place Park, Lewisham. While the muddiest version yet, there was plenty of firm and fast running. One member of the men’s team noted that with no real challenges in the opening 2-3k the field was very densely packed for uncomfortably long. Even the one major hill on each lap, as the women’s team noted, had a gentle run up before the very short, very steep bit.
Illness for one of our women entered meant we were one short of a complete senior women’s team, but Lydia Doye (189th), Dawn Holford (193rd) and Rachel Lam (285th) all took on the challenge in the race won by Havering’s Kate O’Neil. All very determined to not get swept along into the ferocious championship pace at the front, Lydia nevertheless started the fastest, but spent the final third of the race very conscious that Dawn was closing. Both had strong finishes in the uphill run-in, and were separated by 8 seconds at the end. This was Rachel’s debut in a senior cross country championship and we hope she’ll be spurred to return to similar events in future.
Lydia, Dawn and Rachel
The men’s team arrived as newly-minted Essex champions, and were comfortably first Essex club on this bigger stage. Tonbridge’s James Kingston notched up another individual victory while Hercules Wimbledon took team gold, with Aldershot and Kent squeezing runaway Met League leaders Highgate out of the medals.
Oliver Bushdari (finishing 23rd), Tom Beedell (37th) and Tom Frith (42nd) were all packed close together in around 45th at the end of the first small lap, before a short gap to Tom Adolphus (94th) and a much longer gap to the three-man shootout for the two places that would close the team, in Angus Holford (109th). Dan Steel (135th) and Tom Phillips (140th).
By the end of the second lap Oliver had eased forward through the field past Woodford second-claimer and Essex team champion James Stockings, and Highgate perennial Rob Wilson. Tom Beedell had moved past Tom Frith, while Dan looked ominously poised to overtake Angus.
At the finish Oliver had moved through still further, and pulled out a sprint against a Bedford runner. After such an impressive debut last year it is a delight to see improvement. The managers were pleased to hear that he will be taking up his place at the Inter Counties in March, so he has an opportunity to show what he can do on the national stage.
Tom Beedell felt he had started “strong but not silly” and had progressed through the field for the first cross country he has been really satisfied with this season. His sprint for home carried him past James who knew he was Hercules Wimbledon’s 6th man but admitted he was ‘cooked’ in the final kilometres. Being overtaken by Tom added a spicy subplot to his anxious wait for the team results, but the 12-point victory was confirmed and the men’s squad congratulate him on that achievement. Tom Frith was disappointed with his own run but can take some satisfaction from his contribution to the strong team performance. He now has particular reason to turn his focus to the final fixture of the Met League: He sits at the top of the individual leaderboard based on 4 races already run, but will need a strong run to hold off several rivals who have only run 3 races so far and could overhaul him in the ‘best 4 over the season’ calculations.
Tom Adolphus, while a few places down on last year’s below-par run in good fitness, felt he had exceeded expectations given the state of his fitness and training this year. Angus was even further behind last year’s performance, but equally was really pleased with the result after feeling he’s struggled in training for a while. In comparison, although Dan was disappointed with his run despite an improvement of 23 places on last year. Yet he crucially held off marathon-training Tom Phillips to close the team. With that, the squad perfectly nailed team manager Beedell’s “aggressive” target of everyone finishing in the top 150 and a top 8 position for the team.
With the National on 21st February taking place in County Durham, the final Met League of the season on 7th February represents the final local opportunity to don the hoops, or to support, over the grass and mud for this winter. We hope to see lots there!