Beckenham Place Park – Saturday 27th January 2024
Fifth for U17 Women and a second ‘top six’ finish for the Senior Men at the ‘Southern’ Cross-Country.
Following last season’s fifth place finish, the Senior Men finished sixth this time at a keenly contested South of England Cross-Country Championship at Beckenham Place Park, writes Mark Tennyson.
The U17 women were rewarded with the G’s best team placing on the day with an excellent fifth. Our Senior Women had insufficient numbers for a team this time, but still delivered very strong performances, with Suzie Monk in 14th and Evie Warren 25th out of a field of 362 finishers.
Due to race restrictions at Parliament Hill this was the third successive year that the ‘Southern’ XC was hosted at Beckenham and the second time the course was a variation on the 2022 edition. Last season after a small opening lap, the men did three larger laps. This time the three laps were replaced by two longer laps. However, like last season, the course remained shorter than the advertised 15k.
John Sanderson led the G’s home in an excellent 21st place, followed by Tom Foster (35th), Cam Reilly (45th), Ed Dixon (56th), Nick Lightfoot (96th), and Callum Job (122nd). The G’s closed the six man event on 375 points compared to 439 points last season, but finished one place lower than last time in sixth place. Nevertheless this was a very strong performance by the men out of the 45 teams from across the South of England.
The scoring six were backed up by four of the Masters members of the club with Mark Tennyson, Dave Williams, (GGAC debutant) Ian Acreman and Terry Booth all running well.
Teams: Men (6-to-score)
1 – Highgate Harriers 84
2 – Hercules Wimbledon AC 145
3 – Kent AC 232
4 –Tonbridge AC 286
5 – Bedford & County AC 310
6 – Guildford & Godalming AC 375
7 – Aldershot Farnham & District 427
