Yet more cool running for our athletes this week with a range of events from primary schools’ cross country to the South of England Championships. Whatever the event, our Beagles have done an excellent job representing us and even picked up a medal or two (not forgetting two SEAA Trophies)! Well done all!
SEAA Cross Country
A cold morning in Beckenham Place Park was the setting for this year’s South of England Athletic Association cross country championships. With runners from across the South of England taking part the standard of competition was high but once again our Beagles showed their commitment, perseverance and brilliance!
First race of the day saw the U15 boys field run over 4.5km. Jude Hearn had a strong start but unfortunately twisted his leg and pulled up mid race. Mattie Delea continued to demonstrate a solid return to form with a good run of 16:11 (107th). Matthew Jones has also built strength and confidence from race to race and once again took valuable experience from his run of 17:49 (167th).
The U13 girls team ran over 3km and once again proved to have great team consistency. Led home by Summer Smith who had a brilliant race to hold off her personal competition and finish first overall in 10:08. Esme Thomas had a really strong run to finish 37th (11:42). Sophie Bickerstaff and Aria Sabado finished within seconds of each other with Sophie 67th (11:59) and Aria 79th (12:06). As a whole the team had our best team performance of the day with a 5th place finish – a really brilliant result.
The U13 boys’ team also ran 3km and contained our most inexperienced runners but their determination to give their best for the Beagles really stood out and we are incredibly proud of what was an invaluable experience. Daniel Smith was the first Beagle home in 11:35 (116th), Hugo Wilks stepped up to senior cross country with confidence finishing in 11:57 (136th). And one of the performances of the day came from Henry Greenwood who, in his first Beagles race, dug really deep to give his all and finish in 14:40 (174th). Well done boys!
Business as usual for our U15 girls over 4.5km with Olivia Forrest taking an early lead and growing it throughout to finish with a good gap to those behind and taking the gold with a ‘Gun to Tape’ performance – 14:51. Another strong run for Evie Warn who finished 14th against tough competition (15:56) and Isabel Forrest also looked to be in good form with her run of 16:53 (41st). Finally, for the U15 girls’ team, Ava Greenwood made her Beagles debut and showed absolute grit and commitment to getting round the course and ensured that the team finished in 8th place with her run of 28:37 (183rd). We are all incredibly impressed with her performance and support for her team.
Max Sanderson was our sole U17 male runner. Taking on the 6km course, Max ran confidently to finish 51st in 19:56. Mara Thomas also ran over 6km but in the U17 women’s race and showed a real improvement in her running to finish 61st in 24:59.
Finally for our Beagles, senior woman stalwart, Laura Durn ran over 8km. With a really strong field of 362 women, Laura finished in 157th in a time of 34.24. A great effort!
Well done to all of today’s runners you really did the club proud and it was great to see so many vests out on the course.
Pope & Smith Cross Country
The third round of the schools Pope & Smith cross country event took place at Writtle on Thursday lunchtime, providing our young runners with a great opportunity to get out and enjoy their running. Well done to everyone who took part and apologies if we have missed anyone off of our list – thank you to all the parents who shared results with us!
Year 4 girls – Nora Heidemans 2nd, Camilla Nash 32nd, Bailee Abrahams 37th
Year 4 boys – Colm Forrest 1st, Callum Evans 3rd, Oliver Kindler 37th, Gabriel Lander 46th
Year 5 girls – Lianne Esterhuysen 2nd
Year 6 girls – Madison Kindler 1st, Millie White 2nd, Natanya Itola 7th, Grace Lander 13th
Year 6 boys – Hugo Wilks 3rd, Mitchell Evans 7th, Jamie Murphy 11th, Robert Pearson 46th
Well done to everyone – it has been brilliant to see such consistency within these results over the races (please also remember to send in your photos)!
London Indoor Games
Just two Beagles at Lee Valley for the London Indoor Games this weekend – a confusingly titled event that ultimately is an open run entirely in age groups giving a helpful indication of how you stack up! On Saturday Nesochi Onyechere (U17), put her sprint training to good use with races over 60m and 200m. With the 60m taking place over two rounds, Nesochi ran a new PB of 8.74 in the first round with her second round just slightly slower at 8.80. Over 200m she ran well to take half a second off her PB with a run of 29.31. Congratulations!
On Sunday, Madison Kindler was once again racing over 800m and once again leading from the front, racing the clock rather than the competition. This resulted in another great PB over the distance of 2:20.51 and a much-deserved fastest U13 girls time of the day. Well done!
Schools Lee Valley Indoor Athletics
Congratulations to all the year 7 athletes who have been taking part in the Lee Valley schools events this week. We have no clear information but appreciate all of our athletes coming up and telling us how they have done. In particular Caitlyn Phillips, Kairhys Hoyte and Aria Sabado. Aria had a great first place run in the 800m with a new PB of 2.41.
Parkrun and Junior parkun round up
A frosty morning greeted runners for the Saturday 5k parkrun events but there were some great performances around the local events. At Raphael, a superb effort from Dean Savery (16:59 PB) saw him finish 2nd & run under 17 minutes for the first time over the distance. There was another fantastic performance from Louis Geater (19.21) who ran the course for the first-time finishing 11th in a highly competitive field and securing a distance PB of over 30 seconds! Elliot Worth (18:25) finished 6th.
At Maldon Prom, Adam Armour (21:55) ran well to finish 22nd and 1st in the JM 11-14 age category, while over at Chelmsford, Harriet Ward (32:45 PB) picked up her best time over the course as well as her best 5k by over a minute, great work!
At Harrow Lodge, Oliver Trevor (26:02) finished 32nd and was 1st JW10 while at Brentwood there were several senior Beagles running, led in by Alex Young (19:07) who made an impressive debut on the course. In 4th was Phil Price (19:42) with Scott Brooks (20:29) 5th. Just behind in 6th was Dan Jaycock* (20:31) while 8th went to Stuart Crowther (21:17) who once again finished top by age grading.
It was a similarly frosty morning on Sunday for our junior parkrunners with a good turn out at Hutton Rec. Coming in 2nd place was Colm Forrest (08:25), closely followed by Dylan Hussain (09:18) in 3rd and Ethan Wilson (09:27) 4th. Nora Heidemans (09:59) was first female finishing 6th with Jessica Thomson* (10:11) just behind in 8th. Camilla Nash* (11:22 PB) came 14th picking up her new course best while next in was Max Morris* (11:34). 16th went to Joshua Thomson* (11:42), 19th Bailee Abrahams* (12:09) and 20th to Max Wilson (12:23).
At Harrow Lodge, Isabel Forrest (07:43)came 1st, with Emily Brewington (08:28) running well to finish 2nd. 6th went to Blossom Smith (09:34) with Willow Smith running a new PB in 9th (10:08) and Freya Brewington (10:36) 11th, and just 3 seconds outside her PB. Finally, it was just Sophie Bickerstaff (08:19) representing the Beagles at Lake Meadows but a great run saw her finish 2nd, only 8 seconds outside her best.
Well done to all our runners this weekend. Note, if you or your child has an * by their name, please help our editors by adding Brentwood Beagles as your/their club under their parkrun profile (groups). Feel free to contact us if you need help setting this up.
Coming up
It’s another weekend for the school’s with a number of Beagles off to represent Essex Schools at the South East intercounties event in Sussex. Good luck to everyone competing.
