Rain at Parliament Hill – Wind at Hackney Marshes – Our girls still did great reports Donna Nash
For the first time in a long time, we actually had a team at the SEAA Championships at Parliament Hill. Hannah is a seasoned competitor here and was our team captain this year.
The girls achieved 16th out of 20 clubs and individual positions as follows:
Hannah Wells 58th (27.02) Anna Harwood (for Ciara) 82nd (27.53) Lynn Hyde 126th (30.02) and Kate Shockley 138th (30.38) out of a field of 201 and a distance of 6km.
As for the North London Championships at Hackney Marshes –it was c-c-c-cold but thankfully the ladies managed to warm up during the race (Melanie Spencer tried to turn her outfit into a crop top half way round!).
The course wasn’t as bleak and boring as first thought and actually did include a wooded section although some of the stretches were narrow making passing tricky.
Ciara Williams ran fantastically well and managed to beat Hannah Wells, just missing out on a top 10 spot and placed 11th (27.12). Hannah arrived home 18th (27.45 – despite losing a shoe and having to recover it!) and then there was a bit of a battle between Zoë Dobbs (40th – 30.17) and Kate Shockley (41st – 30.33).
The scoring 4 achieved 6th out of 10 beating Serpentine by 2 points and although Zoe didn’t quite catch Carole Jones, we did finish ahead of ESM.
Mel, Lucy Duncan and Angela Duncan completed the course in 52nd / 60th and 69th respectively with Mel accompanying Angela on the last stretch up to the finish. Angela held off 2 other competitors to retain her 69th spot – amazing as ever. The Vets team finished 7th out of 10.
All the ladies agreed it was an enjoyable course; ‘tough but really nice’ said Ciara and Kate commented that it was better running than not!
Sorry no photos this time.
Next event – Sorority Cup, Trent Park 28th November. Enter on the day.
Full North London XC results are here.
