Chloe Richardson
The pre Christmas International event saw athletes representing England, South of England (S of E), Wales and also Kent Clubs, Invicta and Cambridge H taking part. On the course near the Heysel Stadium that has been used for several decades now the British runners did well again. The event shown on Belgium Television has events for every age group and quality of athlete and a whose who of ex Belgium superstars such as Gaston Roelants attended.
The going was good but muddy in places for the races and 11 events had already taken place before the Junior Women got under way. In this race the England Women dominated and Alex Clay surged away on the last lap to win in 14.28 mins ahead of Georgia Mair 14.35 and Annabel Mason 14.53. Marsye Haynes representing the S of E took 4th and England’s Charlotte Taylor came in 5th. England beat Belgium 6 points to 26 in this one. Earlier Bobby Clay, Alex younger sister had got the ball rolling by winning for Invicta the Under 17 Women’s race.
The Junior Men’s race turned into a tussle between Jac Hopkins of Wales and Jost-Lennart Heese of Germany. In the end Hopkins with a strong last lap took the race in 19.40 with Heese 7 secs back while England’s Calum Johnson came through late for 3rd in 19.55. The S of E’s, Scott Halstead took 5th, while other England athletes running were Robbie Farnham Rose 10th, Dominic Brown 14th and Alex George 15th. Belgium ran well and took the Team victory in this one 24 to 27.
Another good class field started the Senior Women’s race with 4 Dutch, 3 Kenyan, 10 British, lots of Belgium’s plus runners from Ethiopia, Switzerland, France and Ireland. It was indeed the Irish runner Fionula Britton that led early in the race but on the last lap the strong Hassan Sifan of the Netherlands poured on the pace to win in 19.38, 2nd came Zewdnesh Ayele, Ethiopia 19.43 while Britton took 3rd a further second back. The England quartet all performed well with Lorna Russel 7th in 20.39, Chloe Richardson 8th 20.40, Rachel Felton 10th 20.45 and Gemma Kersey 11th 20.57. First S of E athlete home being Emily Hosker-Thornhill in 17th spot. In the Team race the scores were 25 each with England winning on count back.
The Senior Men’s race was the 18th race of the day! but the course though very
muddy in places had stood up well. A field of 79 got under way to tackle 7 laps of the course over 10,500m and quite quickly a group of 7 were away with Andy Vernon as an invited athlete in amongst them. As the pace quickened Andy just dropped off the back of this group but kept going well to finish 6th in 31.25 with 5 Africans in front of him, the win going to Alex Kibet of Kenya in 30.40.
Of the other British Athletes in action England’s, Jonathan Thewlis placed 15th, Tom Wade 17th, Will Gray 29th and Jack Partridge 47th. The S of E’s Daniel Woodgate was 29th and Owain Jones, Wales 32nd. and Belgium easily won the Team event 30 to 38.
So another good trip funded by the ECCA with lots of athletes gaining plenty of experience. Full results at http://www.sport.be/
