Our final Essex XC of the season last weekend saw the best results at the event this year with 3 individual winners, and 3 third places as well as one winning team and one 2nd place. Definitely seeing the year out in style! We are also thrilled to be able to share the news that we are now officially an affiliated triathlon club – more information on this below.
As this will be our final news report of the year can we wish everyone who is a member of our club, friend of the club, competitor of the club or who helps us in anyway the very best festive season and a fantastic new year!
Essex XC League
The final Essex XC league event of 2023 saw some brilliant results for the Beagles team. Taking place at Hilly Fields in Colchester, the undulating course and sharp bends provided lots of fun challenges and excitement for all our runners.
First up our year 5/6 runners were treated to a shorter course than expected after a small marshalling error, but there was still a successful outcome with another overall win for Madison Kindler. Congratulations too to Lianne Esterhuysen – 4th girl and Emily Brewington – 7th girl. We also saw great running from our boys with Jamie Murphy finishing in 8th and Ollie Trevor in 14th – well done to both.
The U13 race also had a stand out female Beagle performance with Summer Smith finishing first, almost a minute ahead of second place (10:30) and helping the team to a second place finish overall. Also contributing to that great result were Esme Thomas in 11th (12:14), Aria Sabado – who finished with just one shoe and demonstrating amazing commitment – in 16th (12:46) and Sophie Bickerstaff in 21st (13:04). Our U13 boys also ran well with Ollie Johnson finishing 18th (11:49) and Daniel Smith in 21st (12:04).
The U15 boys race saw the best bit of strategic running of the day with Jude Hearn falling to 5th at the start of the final field but planning his finishing attack to perfection to end the race in third place (13:36). A great effort too from Jake Mitchell in 24th (15:39) and from Matthew Jones 36th (16:47).
The U15 girls were once again dominant with a super team performance that saw them finish first. Olivia Forrest was also first over the line with another strong lead (13:54) with Evie Warn 3rd (14:52), Missy Tiller 6th (15:57), Isabel Forrest 12th (16:39) and a determined performance from Honey Peck to finish 36th (20:26).
Finally in the junior events, the U17 men’s team produced a very solid performance to finish 4th overall. Max Sanderson ran strongly to pick up another third place finish (20:04), Preston Taylor dug deep to take 7th (20:34) and Louis King was also running well in 22nd (22:37). Congratulations too to Mara Thomas who finished 12th in the women’s race (26:44).
Another strong run today by our stalwart of the senior female Beagles team, Laura Durn, who came in under 30 minutes (29:57) to finish 47th overall and sixth in her age group.
And finally in the senior men’s race, Stuart Crowther ran well to finish 184th overall (7th in his age group) in a time of 35:46. He was pursued the whole way by Yvo Heidemans who enjoyed his run and the Beagles support, finishing 193rd (36:32).
Well done to everyone who ran – another great day of superb individual performances and people giving their all!
British Triathlon Affiliation
We are really pleased to announce that the club has now officially become affiliated with British Triathlon. We have taken this step following feedback from a number of our members who are interested in taking on more multi sport activities but couldn’t find time to attend multiple clubs. Any member of our athletics club is automatically a member of the triathlon club without any further membership cost to you. Individual affiliation to British Triathlon can be done on a race by race basis or as a yearly membership, and unlike athletics, can be done directly by you. For more information on this please visit their website.
We will expand on our triathlon plans in the New Year but if you have any questions in the meantime, just get in touch.
Minithon Results Update
Last week we reported on the minithon but didn’t have any results so we are pleased to update you all on those great performances:
Evie Foley – 60m – 10.71, 200m – 36.47, Long jump – 2.69m – Bronze medal!
Lianne Esterhuysen – 60m – 10.62, 600m – 2:04.30, Long jump – 2.80m – Silver medal!
Alice Jones – 60m – 10.65, 200m – 37.39, Turbo javelin – 7m – Bronze medal!
Elise Martin-Boucherb – 60m – 9.79, Hurdles – 11.76, 200m – 36.20, 600m – 2:18.41, Long jump 3.11m – Gold medal and top performer of the day out of all the year 4&5 girls!
Liam Worth – 60m – 11.60, 200m 40.97, Hurdles – 14.20 – Bronze medal!
Zoe Jones – 60m – 11.16, 200m – 38.99, Long jump – 2.13m – Gold medal!
Emily Johnson – 60m – 10.66, 200m – 37.0
Brilliant efforts by all!
Parkrun and Junior parkun round up
A quiet day on Saturday with many runners attending the cross county league event. However, we had 4 runners at Brentwood and an impressive performance from Max Massarella (22:45 PB) finishing 4th overall and picking up a fine course best time. Just ahead of him in 3rd was Daniel Jaycock (21:26). Also running well were Lorraine Massarella (26:35) and Lola Massarella (30:11). At Wickford, Isabelle Young (23:37) made her debut over the course, also securing her best 5k Parkrun time to date. Finally, at Billericay, Jemimah Knightbridge* (21:19) finished 9th and 2nd female.
On Sunday at Hutton Rec, Daniel Smith (08:14) ran well to finish 2nd, just outside his PB. Not far behind him was Jamie Murphy (08:29) in 3rd while Joshua Barke (10:01) came 4th. Max Wilson (16:26) completed the event with his tail walking volunteering. Over at Harrow Lodge, Isabel Forrest (07:57) ran well to finish 1st by 3 seconds while Hollie Poyton (08:21) was not far behind in 3rd. Ollie Trevor (08:31) was 4th, Aria Lily Sabado (08:35) 5th, Blossom Smith (08:51) 7th and Ezra-Zion Gooch (10:20) 14th.
Finally, at Lake Meadows, Lianne Esterhuysen (08:20) ran well, just pipped into 3rd place, and finishing 4 seconds ahead of Sophie Bickerstaff (08:24).
Well done to all our runners this weekend. Note for parents, if your child has an * by their name, please help our editors by adding Brentwood Beagles as their club under their parkrun profile (groups). Feel free to contact us if you need help setting this up.
Coming up
A reminder that the Beagles are now on their short winter break – the first session back after Christmas will be on Thursday 4th January. Note selected groups will continue to train off track during this period – if in doubt, speak with your coach!
Of course there are still plenty of opportunities to run over Christmas – parkruns operate as normal and there are special ones at Christmas and New Year (do check on each event site before attending!). The Boxing Day Crown to Crown 5k is a great run, Serpentine 5k, 10k and 3k all take place over the last few days of the year. The Essex XC Championship takes place on the 6th January – please ensure you sign up before the December 23rd closing date – and there is a BFTTA on the 7th.
