On Saturday 13th December, we had the pleasure of hosting the Middlesex Cross Country Championships at Hillingdon House Farm. With over 700 entrants, it was sure to be a great day of racing!
The added home pressure was not enough to put our senior men off though, and a huge congratulations to all of Hillingdon AC’s representatives for contesting the County Championships over a tough course at Uxbridge.
It was a memorable day for our senior men, and a special shout-out to the scoring six – Kirk O’Rourke, James Laing, Dan Thompson, Neil Kirkham, Guy Green and Dom Speight – who packed superbly to bring home a brilliant bronze medal!
Extra credit must go to Kirk, on arguably his best-ever XC performance, finishing 5th and undoubtedly earning a well-deserved Middlesex vest!
The mythical “Manager’s Choice Award” has to go to Dom Speight, racing just six days after Valencia Marathon and following a skinful at his Christmas party the night before, elite recovery protocols clearly in play.
Paul “Skittlebomb” Williams was agonisingly close, just missing out as 7th scorer, while Scott Farley continued his steady comeback, finishing close behind. A warm welcome as well to Simon Perks, making his team debut and throwing himself straight into one of the longest races on the XC calendar!
Rounding out the team were the ever-reliable Chris Marchland, Deepak Pandiyarajan, Neil Clark and Trevor Steeples*.
*Trevor promptly jetted off on his holibobs and will miss the rest of the XC season, much to the absolute despair of a very unhappy TM.
Congratulations also to Will Mifsud and Zac Bhatti, who finished 6th and 7th respectively in the U20 race.
Zac ran a controlled and mature race, working his way steadily through the field, while Will did the opposite, learning a valuable life lesson that double race days are, in fact, not the best idea.
Both may well have earned Middlesex vests, rounding off a cracking day’s racing all round!
Official Results
The first race of the day was the FU11, which featured 5 HAC runners. The first of which home was Rafferty Death, finishing 16th overall (09:10). Bathsheba Nnoko followed in 22nd (09:27), Rome Gosling 24th (09:44), Francesca McCarthy Bell 31st (10:52) and Margot Cucheval 33rd (10:59).
Johnny Campbell was the first HAC runner home in the MU11 event, finishing in 13th (08:16), closely followed by Aleksander Weir 15th (08:18), Mattia Scialpi 16th (08:21) and Aiden Shah 38th (09:38).
Anna Fear 8th (12:54) led the FU13 HAC runners home, followed by Anna Knight 9th (13:07), Niamh Cuddihy 18th (13:37), Alanna McDermott 24th (13:59) and Rebekah Francis-Rennie 38th (15:16).
There were 3 HAC representatives in the MU13 race, Marcus Sery 18th (12:32), Finlay Kybert 29th (13:07) and Kacey Rico McCalmon 36th (13:40)
Gia Patel 28th (17:45) was the first HAC runner home in the FU15 field, followed by Ava O’Sullivan 37th (18:27), Keira Wickenden 38th (18:29), Ada Mitchell 44th (19:22) and Amariah Odogwu 47th (19:37).
In the MU15 race, Jack Kerr was first HAC runner home in 17th (14:56), followed by Mason Hamdy 33rd (15:56), Alex Farley 37th (16:32), Alastair Burton 41st (16:46), Oscar Richards 42nd (16:48)a= and Deven Buarka 43rd (17:37).
Emma Magerdichian 13th (27:29) and Ava Wright 21st (29:40) competed in the FU17 race.
In the MU17 race, Barnabe Lesenne Ward 14th (22:15) was the first HAC runner home, followed by Adam Strinic 27th (23:25), Luke Sery 32nd (24:19), Oskar Krawczyk 38th (26:04) and Joseph Holms 40th (26:15) completing the scoring.
4 ladies competed for HAC on the day. Clara Higgs was the first HAC runner home in 21st place (34:58). Kirsty O’Rourke followed in 29th place (37:05). Caroline Ford placed 37th (38:22) and Andrea Capera Patino rounded off the HAC scoring in 70th (2:01:53).
The backbone to any organised event is the team that made it happen. A very special thank you goes out to head marshal Maria Hernandez-Humm, James Laing, David Smith, Zoe Dobbs, Jenny Laing and all of the fantastic marshals, officials, athletes and everyone who was involved in the Middlesex Cross Country Championships, it was a fantastic event and an honour to host!
