Highgate Harriers continue to show they are amongst the best road running teams in the country with third in the Brighton 10k on Sunday 14 April.
It was the English Championships and Roger Poolman continues to improve and be a ‘Class’ runner; he was inside 30 minutes for 10k, rubbing shoulders with international athletes.
Roger came 8th in a personal best time of 29:10. All the other quartet finished with personal best times. 30th was Chris Rainsford in 30:21, 38 Rob Wilson, really a very much improved runner recently, with 30:48; and Sean Renfer 32:17.

Highgate’s leading women cross country and road runner this year, Hannah Viner, ran round in 34:27

SEASONED MARATHON MAN IMPROVES IN HIS 40’S

Dan Higgins, an over 40 runner with experience of fast London races, went out to Boston and
ran in the famous BAA Boston Marathon on the 15th of April. He did a personal best time of 2:33.43. The Highgate Harrier was 165th out of over 25,000 finishers.

On Saturday 6 April 2019 in mild conditions at Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield Highgate Harriers had two teams of 12 men competing in the the National 12 Stage Road Relays Championships. The first Highgate team were 4th but one must realise they ran quicker than they did when winning the event in 2016. 4:16:15 as opposed to 4:16:30. The club also had a ‘B’ team that qualified from the Southern and ended up 32nd of 65 clubs and ahead of Coventry Godiva, South London Harriers and Milton Keynes ‘A’ teams.  Highgate’s A team would have possibly been even higher than fourth if the other first five teams had not brought in several internationals from their clubs to strengthen them, whereas Highgate were just strong all through without current internationals.

Leeds City won both the Men’s and Women’s events. The Leeds City men ran round in 4:12:21 with Bristol & West second and Aldershot Farnham & District third.  Behind Highgate’s ‘A’ team were Tonbridge (5th) Kent AC (6th) Swansea (7th) and Liverpool Harriers (8th) .

Of the six long stages and 6 short stages the important long stages were Highgate’s Robel Bahelbi 27:10; Alex Bampton, who surprised with such a good run from the UCL student, in 26:18; Roger Poolman who did a time of 26:21; Alex Lepretre 27:10; Robert Wilson 27:22; and Chris Rainsford 26:50. The short stages were Niki Faulkner 15:52; Morgan Mitchell 15:59; Alex Crossland 15:48; Pete Chambers, Highgate’ fastest short leg 15:41; Murray Strain 15:46 and Charlie Haywood 15:58.

The ‘B’ team were Sean Renfer 28:37; William De Doncker 29:21;Darryl Davison 29:22; Henry Murdoch 30.18; Barnaby Walker 29:10 Jon Laybourn 29:40 and on the shorter stages Brahma Pochee 16:15; Ben Noad 17:08; Dominic Smith 17:41; Tom Crowley 18:03; Russ Ashford 17:36; and Andres Chau 17:01.
                                 
HIGHGATE WOMEN IMPRESS

Considering Highgate Harrier’s women came seventh in the South of England Championships it was very good that they came 7th again in the National Championships out of all the areas & out of 48 complete finishing teams. It was a solid performance. Two long legs and 4 short ones were the order of the day in the six-stage relay event. Highgate beat highly rated Belgrave Harriers, Tonbridge and Bristol & West. The two long legs were by Yasmin Goater on leg one who did 31.25 and Hannah Viner, who took several places in a time of 30:43. The short stages were Emma Burgess 19:31; Molly Renfer 18:35; Nina Griffin 19.12 and on the anchor leg Megan Wilson 18:44.

Results from Sutton Park can be found on the Highgate Results page.

In the Run through Lee Valley 10k race, at Velo Park on Saturday 30 March 2019 Highgate Harriers’ Luke Mcmanus was 3rd in 37:30; and at the same venue, over the half marathon Dave Musgrove, an over 45 athlete, was 17th in 1:29.59.

On 30 March Adam Lennox was 85th out of 357 in the very tough Orion 15-mile cross-country race in 2 hrs 3. 22.

On Sunday (31 March) in the Croydon half-marathon, Highgate Press Secretary’s son Andrew Aitken (41) won the undulating Half-marathon in 1:18.49 and local man Myles Preston of Mornington Chasers was 3rd in 1:19.10, out of a field of 413 finishers.

Highgate Harriers men were 2nd of 53 teams in the South of England Championships Road Relay Championships at Milton Keynes on Sunday 24 March but what is more astonishing is that the ’B’ team came home as the first ‘B’ team in 21st place and, also qualified for the National Road Relay Championships at Sutton Park, Birmingham on the 6th of April; as the first 25 club teams in all the major areas qualify.

The first 6 teams in the South of England Championships were 1 Aldershot & Farnham & District 3:57. 06; 2nd Highgate Harriers 3:58.19; 3 Bedford & County 3:59.06; 4 Kent AC 3:59.39; 5 Belgrave 4:01.48; and 6 Tonbridge AC 4:2.37.

The composition of the runners for the Long stages in the ‘A’ team were Rob Bahelbi 24.07; Alex Crossland 24.22; Roger Poolman 23.01 (The 4th fastest of all the individuals from all the clubs competing) Chris Rainsford 23.57; Rob Wilson 24.25; Alex Lepetre 24.22.
           
The Short Stages in the ‘A’: Niki Faulkener15.24; Charlie Haywood 15.31; Morgan Mitchell 16.02; Pete Chambers 15.20; Sean Renfer 15.53 and Fergal Smithwick 15.55

‘The ‘B’ team comprised of Long Stages Darryl Davison 25.39; Henry Murdoch 26.08; William de Donker 26.18; Barnaby Walker 26.52; James Johnson 26.30; Andre Chau 26.53. Short Stages Ben Noad 16.34; Brahma Pochee 16.21; Russ Ashford 17.16; Tom Crowley 17.07; and Jon Laybourn 16.35
 
HIGHGATE WOMEN DO WELL COMING SEVENTH

In the Southern Six Stage Road Relay Championships the Highgate Women’s team came seventh; their time was 2:15.56. The winning team was Herne Hill Harriers in 2:06.37 and 27 club teams finished. Highgate’s long leg runners were: Hannah Viner 27.16 for the long stage on lap 2 (which was the 4th fastest from all the clubs) and Megan Wilson who ran 29.14 for a long stage on Leg 4. Heloise Gaspard did 20.20 on one of the short stages bringing the club home. The other short leg runners were:  Emma Burgess 19.01; Kani Hinchelwood, 19.56 and Sarah Bailey 20.09.

DAN NOT SO DESPERATE
 
Highgate Harriers ‘C’ team came 42nd out of the 58 starting clubs. The fastest two are athletes, who could make most other clubs’ first teams, were Michael Dan the ‘C’ team’s fastest short stage; he was timed at 18:13 and he is a 15:42 5000m track runner. The fastest long stage runner of the ‘C’ team was Tom Cowling in 26:58 and he is a 2:50 marathon runner. So that shows how Highgate Harriers are one of the strongest clubs in depth for good road men in the country. I am sure their Manager Ben Pochee would agree with that said Press Secretary Alastair Aitken

Full Results

For the second time this year Dan Higgins ran inside 2 hours for 20 miles. In the undulating Finchley/Hillingdon 20-mile road race (Sunday 10 March 2019), which was a Middlesex County Championship race in which 339 finished, Dan Higgins was 4th overall in 1:59.50. The Highgate Harrier was the first over 40 runner in the race.

He was not the only Highgate runner to excel on that day as Alex Crossland ran in the Trafford 10k that saw 888 finishers and he came 20th in a personal best time of 31:22. His previous best was 32:09. Also in the field was another Highgate Harrier Andrew Chau, an Under 23 runner, who were 100th in 34:21.

HIGHGATE WOMEN REPRESENT THE COUNTY
 
In the British Cross Challenge and Inter-County Championships at Prestwick Hall Loughborough on Saturday 9 March most of the best women cross-country runners competed and 266 finished. They were the best athletes selected from Counties all over the UK. The three Highgate women were Hannah Viner, 21st in 40:19,
Yasmin Goater 77th in 42:47 and 167 Emma Burgess, just back from honeymoon in the Canaries. These three will be good for helping the Highgate team to a good result in the Southern & National Road Relays.
The winner on Saturday was Worcestershire international Jenny Nesbitt in 37:52.

RAINSFORD AND FAULKNER RUN VERY WELL
 
Two runners who should be in good from for the Southern and National road relays for Highgate Harriers, coming up shortly did well recently.

At the Inter-County Championships at Loughborough (9 March) Chris Rainsford, running for Derbyshire County was 49th in the Senior Men’s race; to finish in the first 50 is good to say the least.

Niki Faulkner was 3rd in the London Universities and Colleges League cross country at Wormwood Scrubs, on the 27th of February. He was running for Imperial College.