Buoyed up by an invigorating few weeks in which he tackled the Isle of Wight fells and closed the scoring team in the first Surrey League match on Wimbledon Common, Eoin Brady (M35) went toe to toe with M45 Richard McDowell in the Surrey Masters Cross Country Championships at Nonsuch Park on 24 October. In the end Richard took the overall win in the M35-60 race by a whisker in 31:42, with Eoin clocking 31:45, and both athletes taking the gold medals in their respective age categories.
Simon Wade was sixth M45 in 33:43, and Denis Sorkin tenth M40 in 38:20. Peter Lee was 9th M60 in 41:07, and Andrew Davies and Simon Woodley 19th and 20th M50s respectively in 41:56 and 42:03.
In the Women's race Estle Viljoen (W55) finished in 36th overall and fifth in her age category.
Peter Giles was first M80 and 20th overall in the Men's 65+ race, following on from his V75+ victory in the Cabbage Patch 10 Mile race in Twickenham the previous weekend, in which he improved on his own M80 Club record, finishing in 76:12, but was short of the 2007 British record he was chasing. Dave and Claire Grima each bagged Cabbage Patch bronze medals in the V45-54 categories) in 57:11 and 63:37 respectively. Denis Sorkin finished in 66:23, Alastair Bruce in 66:50, Tim Temmink in 76:14, and Patrick Dalton in 78:16.
Bulgarian Bronze
Pancho Panchev clinched the bronze medal (right) in the U20 race at the Bulgarian National Cross Country Championships in Koynare in the north of the country on Saturday 24 October, a week after winning a team bronze at the Southern (SEAA) Cross Country Relays at Wormwood Scrubs on Saturday (17 October).
In the SEAA event the U20 women's team of Emma Lord, Ava McAndie and Iona Alexander (below left) won gold, while in the U20 men’s race Pancho was joined by Rafferty Haigh and Ethan Chow, as they took the bronze medals.
The U14 Boys and U16 Boys A teams were fourth as were the U18 Men, with the B team right behind in fifth.The U18 Women's A team were also fifth and the Senior Women: Eloise Davies, Niamh Thompson and Molly Pocock (left) finished in ninth, while the U14 Girls A team came home in 17th, and the U16 Girls in twelfth.
