The inaugural London Cross Country International meet took place at Parliament Hill on Saturday with Herne Hill Harriers’ Georgie Grgec using it as a chance to test herself against many of the best senior women in the country.
The new event was part of the UK Cross Challenge series and was also a trial race for the Great Britain teams for the World Championships in Belgrade in March.
Grgec, already selected to race in Serbia for New Zealand, found the 10km course very challenging – a brutal 2km circuit literally on the side of the hill, with the degree of difficulty added to with hairpin twists and an ankle turning surface under foot.
Her 13th-placed finish in a strong field was another fine result after her Surrey League Division 1 race win at Wimbledon a week earlier.
Next month she will head off to New Zealand for five weeks to continue her preparation for the World Championships and will take with her invaluable experience from this high-quality race.
There were two of her club-mates who also experienced this exciting new event. Caspian Holmes was ninth in the U15 boys race and Harry Bell was 31st in the U20 men’s race.
Last weekend also saw the London Indoor Games at Lee Valley for senior and U20 athletes.
Commonwealth Youth Games athlete Keeran Sriskandarajah, now U20 for track, took just over a second off his 800m PB. Racing with confidence, he clocked 1:52.81 to place second, just behind senior international 400m hurdler Chris McAlister.
Ignatius Abebrese was second in the men’s triple jump with 14.29m and placed fourth in the long jump with 6.45m. Another second placer was Jaydine Robinson in the women’s 200m.
The Veterans AC Cross Country Championships were held on Wimbledon Common on Saturday afternoon with four athletes from the club winning medals.
Mike Tay was eighth overall and took M35 gold, Pip Bennett was 10th overall and fourth M40 and Muhamud Haile was 17th overall and won an M55 silver medal.
The other Harriers gold medalist was Nikki Sturzaker, who was second female overall and the winner in the W50 category. Next in was M55 Andrew Simms 32nd overall, then M60 Tony Harran 47th overall, followed by another medalist Valdis Pauzers, who in 48th place overall took home the M65 bronze.
Geoff Jerwood
PICTURES: JAMES RHODES