Highgate Harriers senior men's team of six runners, finished all their scorers within the first 33 places, out of 665 finishers, in the South of England Cross Country Championships on Saturday 28th January. Highgate were first of the 40 clubs that closed in. The first 10 clubs were 1 Highgate Harriers 101; 2 Tonbridge AC 103; 3 Hercules Wimbledon 125; 4 Southampton 179; 5 Guilford & Godalming 439; 6 Belgrave 492; 7 Thames Hare & Hounds 493; 8 Aldershot Farnham & District 523; 9 Dulwich Runners 550 and 10 Woodford Green & Essex Ladies 635.
The race was won by James Kingston of Tonbridge (45:07) but there was a tremendous battle for second place, all the way, between Alex Leprêtre of Highgate (45:46) & Ben Alcock of Bedford & County (45:47) but Leprêtre, outkicked Alcock up the final grass hill into the finish. In fourth place, well recovered from a previous injury was Taha Gafari (46:17) of Highgate. The next Highgate runner, over the undulating switchback course, at Beckenham Place Park, was Roger Poolman, a good 16th (47:34). The rest of the Highgate team were 22 Charlie Haywood (47:53); 24 Robert Wilson (47:58); 33 Robel Bahelbi (48:32).
In the women's senior race, won by Aldershot's Georgie Bruinvels in 27:01, Highgate's Hannah Viner improved on her sixth of last year to a close up fourth in 27:14. Hannah's shoe was wrenched off early on and she was barged at one point, but came through well for her fourth position by the finish. Of the 418 runners, other Highgate women included 41 Karina Thornton (30:04); 69 Flick Burton (31:03) and Sabina Russell (31:55).
Lauren Russell was ninth in the under 17 race out of 114 and, although it was a good run, she will improve further with more experience of Championship races as she has so much talent.
In the under 20 men's race Monte Watson was 25th of 80 in 25:24 and Ethan Esteban came in 44th in 26:42.
Thomas Chadwick ran in 45th of 168 in the under 17's & Arjuna Pflug was 15th of 181 in the under 13's.