It was a wet and windy afternoon at Fryent Country Park in Kingsbury last Saturday, where we competed in two concurrent cross country competitions: the Liddiard Trophy and the North of Thames Championships. Our efforts did not go unrewarded, however, as our women’s team left with two sets of silver medals.
The senior women ran a 3 mile circuit of the course, setting off just as the wind and rain started in earnest. Fortunately, the ground was still relatively firm underfoot. The field was dominated by Highgate Harriers, and they took six of the top ten places. Fiona Kennedy was first home for the club, finishing in tenth place. Jane Ruhland followed a couple of minutes later in 19th, with Carol Jones in 20th. In her first cross country race in nearly three years, Lynn Wilson ran well to finish just half a minute behind Carol, in 23rd. In the 3-to-score Liddiard Trophy, Fiona, Jane and Carol took silver medals, while Fiona was awarded an individual silver medal as the second veteran. In the 4-to-score North of Thames championships, all four of our women took home a silver team medal. With Fiona, Carol and Lynn all being over 55, there are good prospects of age category medals at the south of England veterans championships in December.
After a fine performance at last week’s Met League, our men did not field such a strong team this week, but we were well represented, with 12 runners. Over the 5 mile course, Jon Ellis made a strong start but conceded places on the final lap, eventually finishing 19th. He was followed less than a minute later by M40 Angelo John in 25th, and a couple of minutes after that by Tom Yates in 43rd, with M45 Rob Brown close behind in 47th. As was the case last week, Steve Plested was once again the first man over 60 to complete the race. In the 6-to-score Liddiard Trophy, the team finished eighth. The North of Thames Championship awards medals in three different combinations: 4-to-score, 6-to-score and 8-to-score, and Ealing’s men finished 5th, 6th and 5th respectively.
Full results here