I’ve got results from 10 races over the weekend to list, along with 3 that I’d previously overlooked from previous weekends, but there were 2 main events for the club and they are the ones I will talk about in more detail.

Firstly there was the absolutely final race of the Cross Country season, the 5th leg of the North West London Young Athletes League, hosted by us in Finsbury Park.

We had 38 youngsters taking part for the club with at least 1 in all 8 events and, perhaps unusually, significantly more girls than boys. The youngest age group, under 11, wasn’t the most successful for the club, but Nicole and Maya amongst the girls and Antanas for the boys were well up the field and the girls finished a solid 4th team on the day. Despite another excellent run from Johnny the under 13 boys also just missed out on the top 3, but the under 13 girls were the biggest success story both on the day and for the season as a whole. Savannah was very close to the 2nd and 3rd runners on the day with Genevieve, Ottavia, Jessica and Molly all well inside the top half of the field. This led to Heathside not only being first team but Heathside B coming 3rd, while the victory on the day was enough to also ensure top place overall for the season. The under 15 girls were almost equally successful with great runs from Yanna and Lily and plenty of backup from the rest ensuring that the team finished 2nd both on the day and overall, while Yanna also finished as 3rd individual in the overall season long rankings. The under 15 boys just missed out on a top 3 placing on the day and overall, despite good runs from James and Max, but James’s consistency over the season saw him too claim 3rd place overall in the league. The under 17 races tend to have the smallest fields, and that was true again, but for the first time all season we had a competitor in the women’s event and Emily won it comfortably, which also led to her being 2nd team on the day despite having no teammates! On the male side however it is the age group at which we tend to do best, and even with Miron not taking part on the day we still had Tom, Daniel and Joe all well placed and thus came 2nd team on the day and overall. It was the absent Miron who finished 2nd individual overall however with Daniel just behind in 3rd place. The final team awards are for overall boys and girls teams over all the age groups and we picked up 2 more 3rd places in them, thus giving us a total haul of 1 1st, 3 2nd and 5 3rd place finishes, so a hugely successful season.

Also on Saturday the Victoria Park 5, the 3rd race in the Rob Jackson Road Race Champs, took place. Heathside had a good turnout, especially of men, but it is a very high quality race so only Olivier (just) was able to finish in the top 30. It was a great run from him as after another fast start he this time managed to keep it going much better until the end. I was the next Heathsider home but despite being 1st V45 and 2nd V40 I didn’t get a prize as there was only 1 for each 10 year age group. Ken also made the top 50, while Philip edged out Jacob, Nick and Max to complete the 4 to score team. Although I haven’t found the official team results anywhere I’m pretty sure we were 3rd, but there appeared only to be 1 team prize too so nothing for us! Leigh was our top woman in exactly 100th overall, but again the overall standard was far too high for her to win any prizes. Amongst the other races, Liam took advantage of the absence of Michael and Olivier to win the local parkrun, while Claire and Andy’s Halves at Paddock Wood and Tony’s 10k at Eastleigh were also very good performances. There has to be a special mention for Ken however as he raced on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, without any significant dip in performance as the weekend went on! Results of the above and many more as follows: Ashby 20 Mile Road Race, Ashby-De-La-Zouch (Leicestershire), 13/03/11: 748th Jayne Sales 3h 18m 00s Surrey Spitfire 20 Mile Road Race, Cranleigh (Surrey), 13/03/11: 307th Maxine Kelly 2h 52m 50s 550th Claire Sliwerski 3h 23m 17s Cranleigh 21 Mile Road Race, Cranleigh (Surrey), 20/03/11: 248th Rosaire Gray 3h 00m 37s 315th Gabi Johnson 3h 09m 44s 523rd Claire Sliwerski 3h 47m 35s Last Friday of the Month 5k Road race, Hyde Park, 25/03/11: 12th Steve Monaghan 17m 20s (2nd V40) 15th Ken Heney 17m 46s 86th Matt Wells 21m 13s Finsbury Park 5k parkrun, Finsbury Park, 26/03/11: 1st Liam Proudlock 17m 38s 17th Carl Heap 20m 35s 25th Dave Walton 21m 43s 27th Maxim Cardew 21m 46s 49th Adrian Essex 24m 07s Brighton 5k parkrun, Hove Park, 26/03/11: 24th Mark Derry 20m 17s Southgate 5k parkrun, Grovelands Park, 26/03/11: 3rd Robin Tremaine 19m 47s 22nd Emilia Vynnycky 22m 59s North West London Young Athletes Cross Country League, race 5 of 5, Finsbury Park, 26/03/11: Under 11 Girls (2000m approx): 7th Nicole Bowen 10m 31s 9th Maya Raykov 10m 42s 21st Kayla Baynes 17m 40s 22nd Pearl Bador 19m 34s Team result, 3 to score, 4th.

Under 11 Boys (2400m approx): 14th Antanas Weston 11m 42s 35th Cass Beckford 13m 18s 39th Jack O’Shea 13m 34s Team result, 3 to score, 9th.

Under 13 Girls (2400m approx): 4th Savannah Dixon 10m 54s 5th Genevieve Weston 11m 13s 10th Ottavia Laidler 11m 37s 11th Jessica Godden 11m 50s 13th Molly Harrison 11m 57s 16th Roshanna Smith 12m 09s 20th Sophie Bowen 12m 23s 24th Stephannye Da Silva 12m 34s 28th Morwenna Taylor 13m 07s 29th K Hibbert 14m 32s Team result, 3 to score, A team 1st, B team 3rd, C team 9th. Overall league position 1st.

Under 13 Boys (3100m approx): 5th Johnny Naylor 13m 53s 19th Ryan Napleton 15m 45s 21st Tomas O’Shea 16m 01s 26th Yohannes Asefa 16m 55s 27th Cameron Mackinney 17m 00s Team result, 3 to score, 4th.

Under 15 Girls (3100m approx): 4th Yanna Raykov 15m 27s (3rd overall for the season) 8th Lily Beckford 16m 03s 13th Jade O’Brien 17m 07s 15th Kathleen Jackson 17m 31s 17th Rhiannon Bassett 17m 47s 18th Ellie Jackson 17m 57s 19th Harriet Mackinney 18m 23s 20th Ellen Bolger 18m 52s Team result, 3 to score, A team 2nd, B team 5th. Overall league position 2nd.

Under 15 Boys (3600m approx): 8th James Wooldridge 15m 04s (3rd overall for the season) 13th Max Heap 15m 39s 22nd Mychaell Da Silva 17m 27s 23rd Jasper Crockford 17m 34s Team result, 3 to score, 4th.

Under 17 Women (3600m approx): 1st Emily Warburton-Adams 16m 27s Team result, 3 to score, 2nd.

Under 17 Men (4200m approx): 6th Tom Purvis 18m 11s 7th Daniel Szajna 18m 20s (3rd overall for the season) 8th Joe Silva 19m 12s Team result, 4 to score, 2nd. Overall league position 2nd. Miron Woldemichael was 2nd overall for the season but didn’t run on Saturday.

Overall team results: Girls 3rd Boys =3rd Victoria Park 5 Mile Road Race, Victoria Park (Hackney), 26/03/11: 30th Olivier Le Polain 27m 13s 39th Paul Lemmon 27m 47s (1st V45) 49th Ken Heney 28m 41s 53rd Philip Bentley 28m 57s 54th Jacob Howe 29m 07s 60th Nick Bishop 29m 48s 61st Max Prien 29m 52s 64th Steve Monaghan 30m 10s 82nd Marcus Tillotson 32m 08s 100th Leigh James 33m 51s (14th woman) 121st Tom O’Loughlin 36m 14s 123rd Zoe Boyland 36m 17s (17th woman) 148th Dan Williams 38m 45s 156th Grini Dimitraila 39m 26s Eastleigh 10k Road Race, Eastleigh (Hampshire), 27/03/11: 129th Tony Killilea 37m 27s Paddock Wood Half Marathon, Paddock Wood (Kent), 27/03/11: 51st Andy Welshman 81m 15s 147th Claire Gibson 87m 34s 158th Nick Jellema 88m 16s 442nd Matt Rowley 98m 58s Newham 10k Road Race, Newham, 27/03/11: 14th Ken Heney 36m 52s 704th Daniel Plawiak 51m 19s 1216th Briony Fane 56m 46s 1970th Arthur Keitch 67m 22s Oakley 20 Mile Road Race, Oakley (Bedfordshire), 27/03/11: 125th James Felstead 2h 28m 34s 247th Paul Murphy 2h 40m 53s 464th Donal Golden 2h 58m 44s