Thousands of club runners battled it out for honors at Kent’s Beckenham Place Park on Saturday
In a venue that only held its first serious cross-country race a dozen years ago on a disused municipal golf course, Bournemouth’s adopted asylum seeker Abdinasir Mohamud Elmi took no prisoners and emerged victorious by more than a minute, as Megan Gadsby added: women’s race.
In its early years the selected course had some obstacles, which have gradually been removed as improvements have been made, first by the Surrey League, then by the South of Thames and more recently by the South of England Championships.
Men
The South of England Area Championship retains its previous distance of an advertised 15km, a repeat of the nine miles that was the norm for other English and area events until things softened elsewhere.
Not that Elmi had any problems with the course’s restrictions, as his form had exploded from the start since bursting onto the scene last summer. a race that followed a nine-race unbeaten streak.
James Kingston had won the course for the last two years, as well as winning the England National title in 2023 and competing twice in the Eurocross Championship, finishing 16th in 2024, but had no answer to Elmy.
The Tonbridge man, who was third in the postponed English Nationals last September, had a rather lonely race, finishing 40 seconds ahead of third-placed Fleury Grierson, a distant 12th last year, who led his Highgate club to the team title.
There is no separate category for veterans, but Kent’s John Gilbert was best on show in ninth to take his club to third in the team medals behind Highgate, who had 6 in 29, and Hercules Wimbledon.
Abdinasir Elmi (Steve Wilkin)
Men. 1 A Elmi (B’mth) 43:30; 2 J Kingston (Ton) 44:39; 3 F Grierson (High) 45:19; 4 A Milne (HW) 45:26; 5 S Eglen (AFD) 45:32; 6 A Lawrence (VP&TH) 45:38
M40: 1 J Gilbert (Kent) 46:32
TEAM: 1 Highgate 94; 2 Hercules Wimbledon 136; 3 Kent 141
Women
With around 8km to go and a much closer race, Megan Gadsby won for her Norwich City club by around 30 meters over Naomi Kingston as Kate Estlea-Morris was a close third.
Gadsby, who was fourth here last year, won the under-23s at Sefton Park in November before finishing 23rd at the Turkish Championships in what turned out to be a breakthrough autumn after finishing sixth in mid-September English National.
It was a bit of a breakout run for Kingston and followed two years of Kent Championship silver medals, while Astle-Morris has been a regular scorer in Aldershot’s medal-winning teams in recent years.
With the top 17 runners home within a minute of their four goals, Thames Hare & Hounds, led by sixth-placed Elizabeth Apsley, won team gold from Belgrave and Aldershot.
Women. 1 M Gadsby (Norway) 28:01; 2 N Kingston B&B) 28:15; 3 K Estlea-Morris (AFD) 28:23; 4 K O’Neil (Hav’g) 28:43; 5 S Tooley (Herne H) 28:53; 6 E Apsley (THH) 28:56
TEAM: 1 Thames Hare & Hounds 52; 2 Belgrave 65; 3 Aldershot F&D 92
Young athletes
Irish silver medalist Frankie McGrath, who went on to compete at the Eurocross in Turkey, led the juniors through the 8km course, but his margin of victory over second-placed Chelmsford runner Joseph Grange, who moved up from third last year, was just a few yards was
There was a slightly wider gap to third-placed Alden Collier, England’s national under-13 champions back in 2020. That gave Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow two places in the top three, but Aldershot was the lead in the team stakes.
Alex Lennon, who was fifth in the European Under-18 1500m last summer, held off Norwich’s Michael Clarke in the men’s Under-17 race to lead his Sutton & District quartet to team gold.
Lennon was also the 2022 English Schools Junior 1500m champion, while it was a repeat silver for Clarke, who went on to win the postponed 2024 English Nationals at Weston Park.
It was closer behind as Luke Dunham finished third for Herts Phoenix with the rest following in close order.
The boys’ closest race was the under-15s, where Finn McLennan squeezed home by a few ticks in a four-way battle for gold, just ahead of Tom Ford, Freddie Gibson and an unlucky fourth-placed Caspian Holmes, who had the consolation of leading his Herne Hill club. with team awards counting down.This is after 70 points level with MacLennan’s Cambridge & Coleridge, but fourth goalscorer Luca Boulton did the job comfortably.
No club top-scored their four scorers in the under-13 boys race as Filip Kounoupas Prastalo won overall and Hercules Wimbledon won the team.
Jenny Legate has had a good winter so far and won the junior women’s race by almost a minute over Hannah Clarke after moving up from second place last year and eighth two years ago.
It was Windsor who took team gold as the five teams managed to finish four runners out of a combined 54th place.
Women’s under 17 race winner Katie Pye has a string of successful titles behind her and here, leading Lucy Wilkinson by around 30m, with Sabrina Coppola-Johnson a distant third.This was comfortably ahead of the previous race and beat Olivia Forrest by some distance was back in the fourth.
Pye, the European Under-18 3000m champion, was second here last year and has won the South Under-15 title in 2022.
Kitty Scott (Steve Wilkin)
It was Aldershot team-mate Kitty Scott who had earlier added the under-15 girls title from club mate Poppy Guest, with Cara Gorman third, with team gold going to Gorman’s Windsor for Aldershot.
Going into the Under 13 girls race, pre-race favorite Maddison Kindler had a 30m lead over Skye Widdows.
U20 Men. 1 F McGrath (WSEH) 24:58; 2 J Grange (Chelm) 25:05; 3 A Collier (WSEH) 25:19
TEAM: 1 AFD 51; 2 WSEH 72; 3 Tonbridge 99
U17: 1 A Lennon (S&D) 18:44; 2 M Clark (Norway) 19:04; 3 L Dunham (Herts P) 19:08
TEAM: 1 Sutton & D 60; 2 Bedford & C 87; 3 Blackheath and Bromley 143
U15: 1 F MacLennan (C&C) 14:10; 2 T Ford (Chilt) 14:12; 3 F Gibson (M&M) 14:12
TEAM: 1 Herne H 70; 2 Cambridge & Coleridge 70; 3 Eastbourne Rovers 86
U13: 1 F Prastalo (Lon H) 10:20; 2 J Docherty (Dac) 10:25; 3 T Bainbridge (WSEH) 10:27
TEAM: 1 Hercules 121; 2 AFD 130; 3 Blackheath and Bromley 145
U20 women. 1 J Leggate (C&C) 21:33; 2 H Clark (B&B) 22:25; 3 S Barrett (Norway) 22:41
TEAM: 1 WSEH 38; 2 Norwich 92; 3 Blackheath & B 97
U17: 1 K Pye (AFD) 21;36; 2 L Wilkinson (WSEH) 21:46; 3 S Coppola-Johnson (E&E) 22:09
TEAM:1 WSEH 49; 2 Eastbourne R 84; 3 Milton Keynes 99
U15: 1 K Scott (SFD) 15:20; 2 P Guest (AFD) 15:31; 3 K Gorman (WSEH) 15:37
TEAM: 1 AFD 24; 2 WSEH 52; 3 Chelmsford 65
Madison Kindler (Steve Wilkin)
U13: 1 M Kindler (B’wood) 10:53; 2 S Widdows (B&H) 11:04; 3 S O’Brien (Herne H) 11:13
TEAM: 1 Chelmsford 65; 2 Brentwood Beagles 77; 3 S London 96
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