This week saw cross country season start and track season end both in a really strong way for our athletes!

Lee Valley Schools Cup

School cross country events started this week with Nicole and Katie Hawkins taking part in the Lee Valley Schools Cup. The girls ran very well against 110 girls across year 8 and 9. Nicole finished in 16th place with Katie in 41st. A great start to the school season for both.

Essex Cross Country Relay Championships

On Saturday morning, three Beagles teams represented the club at the Essex Cross Country Championships. Each team member was required to run a 3k leg of Weald Country park including some of its most notorious hills!

The U13B team saw Jude Hearn ran the first leg doing a great job at keeping the leaders of the mixed age group (U13, U15, U1) field in sight. Finishing in 12:43 he handed over to Frankie Edwards who dealt well with the spreading field to finish his leg in 14:38. Taking the final leg was Mattie Delea who used his vast Weald park experience to chase down the boy in front, finally finishing just 8 seconds behind third place in 12:56. It was a great run from all three boys and to finish in fourth was a remarkable achievement for this stage of the season.

The U15G team had Evie Warn as the lead runner. Evie ran the race of her life to come back from the first lap in third place (again running against a mixed field of U13, U15 and U17 athletes) in a time of 12:54. Handing over to Mara Thomas, Mara kept the team in contention with a great run of 14:14 and the third runner to get back from her lap. Running the anchor leg was Olivia Forrest who chased down the girl in front, overtook her and closed the gap to the lead runner. Finishing in 12:18 she had the second fastest female junior time of the day and the girls team as a whole finished in silver medal position. A brilliant result for a really strong team.

The U13G team began their race with Isabel Forrest running first leg and giving the team a great advantage in a time of 13:50. Handing over to Esme Thomas, Esme ran strongly and kept the girls in contention with a time of 15:03. The last leg was ran expertly by Rosie Quirk who pushed forward and guaranteed gold medals and the Essex Championship trophy with her run of 14:14. The team finished 13 seconds ahead of second place underlining their dominance and well deserved win.

Havering Open

The Havering Open provided our athletes with one last chance of an outdoor track competition this year. With Beagles competing in a range of track and field events, the sunny Sunday afternoon saw some brilliant performances.

The first Beagles in action were U13G Isabel Forrest and Nicole Hawkins who took on a good sized 1500m field. Leading from the front Isabel finished first female in 5:18.37 with Nicole taking third place with a great new PB of 5:35.73.

Next were our U13G sprinters – Ava Carter ran very strongly to finish third in her heat with a new PB of 13.79. Honey Peck dominated in her heat finishing first in 13.95. Both girls also tackled the 200m later in the day and both took home a second PB. Ava with her run of 28.48 and Honey who ran 29.39.

Our male sprinters also showed their form with a brilliantly competitive race. James Gillingham finishing first in 11.97, Qi Wei first U20M in 12.53 and Justin Waithe also first in his age group in 13.42. Justin ran his race off the back of a strong performance in the long jump with a best jump of 4.24m.

Our U13 boys – Zac Collings and Nicky Mulholland – also sprinted well taking on each other in a very close 100M race. Nicky just edged the finish line in a time of 15.79 with Zac finishing in 15.96.

Both boys also ran in the U13B 800m, along with Jude Hearn. Jude led throughout the race with a really strong performance of 2:31.03 with Nicky finishing in 2:49.66 and Zac in 2:56.50.

Evie Warn and Olivia Forrest both chose to run the U15G 800m ensuring another dominant Beagles performance and a one, two finish. Olivia with a new PB of 2:26.88 and Evie with her new PB of 2:36.47 – eight seconds clear of third place. Olivia also took the opportunity to compete in the high jump competition with a best jump of 1.2m.

Max Sanderson ran in the U15B 800m and showed his strength and power from the outset, finishing second overall (to an out of area athlete) in 2:11.06 and seven seconds ahead of third place.

The final race of the day saw a really strong line up of U17M battle over 200M, however Michael Olubodun-Niyi led from beginning to end powering to the finish line in a very competitive new PB of 23.79. A perfect way to finish the day.

Parkrun and junior parkrun

Saturday saw a break from Brentwood for Stuart Crowther and Steve Danby as they visited Chalkwell parkrun. It was definitely worth the trip as Stuart ran his best ever parkrun time of 19:41 with Steve managing a course PB of 20:59. At Raphael’s Park George Ashton continued to show his form with a run of 19:02 and Emily Brewington ran well with her time of 28:10. Thanks to those who sent in pictures for inclusion – if you have photos form an event a Beagle run or competes in, please let us know here.

On Sunday, Nora Heidemans, ran a new 57 second PB of 10:34 at Lake Meadows junior parkrun, whilst over at Harrow Lodge Hudson Jeffery took 1 minute and 22 seconds off his previous best to finish in a time of 10:08 and Ariah Russell took 24 seconds off her best time with her run on 10:46. We also saw brilliant Beagles’ runs from Emily Brewington (9:33), Zyana Russell (9:54), Stephanie Smith (9:58), Alice Jones (12:47), Sheldon Waithe (13:05) and Henley Jeffery (13:21). Well done to all.

Coming Up

Next weekend sees the London Marathon and for our Beagles the London mini marathon which takes place on Saturday for the first time. Good luck to the team of Max Sanderson, Mattie Delea, Ollie Johnson, Evie Warn, Olivia Forrest and Isabel Forrest. If you are in London on Saturday do give them a cheer!