Another great run from the ever improving John Gilbert produced a runaway win in this championship race that was first held in 1934. Straight from the gun he took the lead and steadily built up a lead from Chris Busailah of Herne Hill that eventually grew to nearly a minute by the finish. He now has a hat trick of wins this season and his improved form this year was rewarded with a fine antique Gold medal for his first ever Championship win.

Team Manager, James Connor, took it really steadily on the first lap as he assessed whether he had recovered from a 3 week layoff through injury but then worked his way through up to 4th place by the end and hopefully will come through unscathed. Behind him new recruit, Mark Bruce, running his first ever Cross Country race had a great debut, ‘enjoying the run,’ to come home in 11th place but our last scorer Jon Gill, another new recruit, had to really dig deep to hold it together on the second lap after a fast start eventually coming home in 24th position.

Other improved runs from Stuart Beaney (29th), Simon Loach (34th ) backed up by Luke Armitage (39th) and Rawlston Morian (49th) closed our 8 to score team as over 150 runners closed in. We were rewarded for our efforts on the bitterly cold winter’s day with Silver Team medals in both the 4 and 8 to score team events – only narrowly being beaten in both events by a strong turnout from local rival Herne Hill Harriers.

Ken