English National Cross Country Championships - Richard Slade wins Senior Mens Race

​It was a memorable day for Chiltern Harriers on Saturday at Parliament Hill Fields as Richard Slade won the Senior Men’s race at the National Cross Country Championships. After a great season which has involved two appearances for England, Richard was amongst the names in contention, but the win was beyond expectations.
 
It was a mild, dry day but recent rain created a soft, heavy course which cut up badly through the day – fortunately conditions which suit Richard.
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See article in Athletic Weekly on the Championships

Earlier on several Chiltern athletes braved the tough hills on Hampsted Heath with the first club interest being in the U15 Boys race where James Henderson (141st) and Kit Dixon (280th) battled hard.
 
In the U13 Girls race Emilia Ingham was the sole Chiltern competitor, running well to be 95th.
 
There were seven U17 Men facing the starter and the team came a creditable 16th. Edward Johnson was 39th, Aidan Suleyman 82nd, a one-shoed James Holdsworth 151st and Jack Turner 200th to be the scorers and there was back up from Daniel Munn in 241st, James Malin 259th, and Charlie De Sousa 278th.
 
Harrison Lawrence was first Chiltern U13 boy in 92nd and Isaac Brown in 141st and Zac Taylor 174th completed the team.
 
Next up were the U15 Girls and there were good efforts from Maya Davis in 61st and Megan Lockwood in 152nd. Roxie Jones was the sole Junior Woman in 91st.
 
In a big field of 830 finishers in the Senior Women’s race, Emily Alderson in 173rd and Katie Royals in 221st both did well in conditions which were by then very taxing.
 
Ash Finch braved the tough Junior Men’s 10k course, finishing well in 75th.
 
For the first time at a big championships the Chiltern Senior Men fielded the biggest team representing the club. There were ten Chiltern runners in the massive field of 1765 finishers and the scoring six finished an excellent 18th from the 112 complete teams. In the ‘nine-to-score’ results the team were 21st.
Richard Slade has built on a good previous few years to breakthrough into the international ranks this winter and was always in the leading group on Saturday. With one lap to go he was in a leading duo with Tonbridge’s James Kingston and was able to pull away for an impressive thirty second win. There was good packing from the remaining Chiltern scorers – Harry Cox was 178th, James Palmer 200th, Tim Lawrence 202nd, Aran Davidson 235th and Adam Shute 451st. Also braving the mud were James Turner 603rd, Jonny Slade 726th, Tom Robinson 967th and Ben Hannen 1027th.
 
The Chiltern Senior Men – the ‘Green Arrows’ – have had a good winter, fielding two full teams at the Aldershot Road Relays; winning a medal, through Simon Bossi, Aran Davidson, Angus Willimas and Cameron Reid, at Wormwood Scrubs XC Relays; and now a top twenty team finish in the National. Hopefully next winter will see the team build on that.