London Heathside’s Senior Men’s squad won the North London and London Cross-Country titles, as well as promotion this season [Jacob Howe]

AS the cross-country season strides towards the finish line, athletes representing London Heathside can start to reflect on another well-run campaign.

It hasn’t been easy, with the weather making tough challenges even harder. Saturday in the Metropolitan Cross-Country League was case in point: the fifth and final meet at Trent Park cancelled due to a waterlogged course.

This week clubs voted on whether the fixture should be rescheduled, but as the Tribune went to press all indications were that it won’t be – making the final league standings after four big race days conclusive.

For Heathside that means their Senior Women’s team have finished in the silver medal position after taking second place in all four outings this season.

Top of the individual podium is champion Rebecca Piggott, who remained consistent throughout. She was second in the first race of the season in Claybury back in October, and went one better when she won the second meet in Horsenden Hill the following month.

Piggott finished third at Wormwood Scrubs in December, just five seconds behind clubmate Rebecca Bunting, before completing a remarkable season by taking fourth place at Welwyn Garden City last month to top the individual rankings.

Summing up “another highly successful cross-country season”, former club secretary Simon Baker said: “The Senior Women retained the Middlesex County title, as well as finishing second overall in the Met League with Rebecca Piggott taking the individual overall title.

Rebecca Piggott (left)

“The Senior Men won the North London and London Cross-Country titles, as well as finishing third in the Met League.

“They also won promotion to Division One of the Chingford League. Thomas Archer also became the club’s first Middlesex senior cross-country champion.

“The club’s young athletes have also had a strong season with the Under-15s boys’ team winning bronze in the Southern Cross-Country Championships to add to their county title. The Under-17s women and Under-20s men were also crowned county champions.”

Elsewhere, there was also success for rival running club Highgate Harriers as their Senior Men’s team were crowned champions for the 13th year in a row.

Any suggestion that such a winning streak diminishes the glory was quickly dismissed by team manager Rob Wilson, albeit with a hint of caution as he waited on the official word that there were no more races left to run.

He said: “You always want to keep winning – winning never gets old.

“To win it for 13 years in a row is a generation; a new group of runners coming through to create their own history. It’s a great achievement.”

Highgate Harriers Senior Men won the Metropolitan Cross-Country League for the 13th time in a row

Although the Trent Park meet being called off hands Highgate the title, Wilson was adamant that the runners wanted the final race to go ahead.

He added: “We won the first three races of the season and looked to be soaring towards the title, but then Victoria Park thumped us at Welwyn Garden City and the title race was back on again.

“We were obviously disappointed. We had a strong line-up set for the final race and really wanted to go out and give a good account of ourselves and right a wrong – to try and win the title in the right way. But either way we’re still thrilled if we have won the league again.”

The highlights for Highgate started in race one of the campaign in Claybury when Flurry Grierson, Roger Poolman and Alexander Lepretre finished within a little over 16 seconds of each other to take second, third and fourth place, respectively.

Poolman repeated his third-place finish in race two when he completed the 8km course at Horsenden Hill in 23 minutes, 40.24 seconds.

Grierson, who lives in Barnsbury, returned as Highgate’s best performer when the Met League moved to Wormwood Scrubs for race day three.

The speedster clocked a time of 21:42.52 to finish second, leading the club to yet another team victory on the day as all 12 of their scorers hit home in the top 38.

Race day four, held in Welwyn Garden City, proved a struggle for points, certainly judged on Highgate’s high standards in the league.

Terry Fawden was the club’s best finisher as he took eighth place with his time of 26:59.86.