THE courses for this year's South of England cross-country championships at Parliament Hill, Hampstead Heath, featured extensive sections of mud and water, making the going tough for the runners.
Dorking & Mole Valley Athletics Club's Bea Allan had a superb run in the U13 girls' race. She was never out of the top ten and finished strongly, overtaking one of the favourites, to clinch sixth place out of 204. Her time was 11mins 31secs for the 3,000m.
The boys' equivalent race had the same number of finishers. Fred Geen, who has another year in this age group, placed 78th (11.58), with Ewan Bate 120th (12.24).
DMV had three boys in the U15 race over 4.5km. Charlie Wyllie, who was still suffering with a heel injury, finished in 75th (16.48); Henry Allan had a steady run to come in 140th (18.01); and Oliver Appleby was 177th (19.40) in a field of 194.
Only two of the club's U15 girls were available. Hannah Morris ran well to record a time of 15.33 for the 4,000m (48th) and Ellie Parnham placed 148th (17.53) in a field of 187. Reigate's Niamh Brown had a great result taking the bronze medal with a strong finish.
The sole DMV competitor in the men's U17 race, Ben Brunswick was 108th out of 151 in a time of 23.31 over 5,000m.
The postponement of the event from January due to the bad weather meant that less than half of DMV's entered runners could take part.
Louise Ionascu (W40) showed the benefits of her long training runs to place 83rd (36.44), with Agnes Mollendowska improving from previous races to be 151st (41.43) out of 255 finishers.
Rob Russell completed the 15,000m course in a time of 65.32. He came in 252nd out of a field of 541 runners.
Former DMV members were noticeably prominent, now running for Aldershot, Farnham & District.
Emelia Gorecka coasted to victory in the ladies' U20 race – her seventh victory in such a race in seven years.
Georgie Bruinvels was just out-sprinted for fourth place in the senior ladies, and Jack Wyllie was in 36th place in the U17 men.
