Cross Country rocks BUCS in Brighton

Early on Saturday 31st January a 37 strong team from Imperial Cross Country took the train down to Brighton to compete in the BUCS Cross Country Championships, apprehensively eyeing up the snow from the windows. With the strongest level of competition from universities all over the country including a host of elite athletes who have represented England, Scotland and Great Britain on an international stage this was undoubtedly billed to be the race of the year.

The courses set for men’s long, short and women’s races were among the toughest set in recent years, including a gruelling ascent that would test all including the strongest athletes, the course had also been used the week before for the South of England XC championships, so it was already heavily worn.

Imperial had a strong team fielded for both men’s and women’s teams. The men’s A-team included Spanish international Alberto Sanchez, BUCS 10km silver medallist Chris Bannon, and fresher Chris Olley who has had a storming season including a sub 32min 10km. They were backed up by XC old timer Chris Thomas, PhD student Mike Ridley, and triathlete David Freeman. In the Women’s team big things were expected from 3:04 marathoner Sarah Johnson, international triathlete Imo Simmonds, and track specialist Alex Mundell.

The men’s A-race went out first at midday, with the strongest 6 runners in each University heading out on a 12km, 3-lap route. The front pack stayed together for the first 4km with Bannon and Sanchez keeping close to the front, and with Olley close behind all looking strong. Meanwhile behind Chris Thomas was putting down the race of his life holding his own in a strong field.

Halfway through the race a group of four comprising of GB athletes, Johnny Hay, Jonny Davies, Richard Goodman, and Callum Hawkins broke free with a large surge that tore the field to pieces. The last 6km was covered at breakneck speed, with Hay (38:57) eventually winning by just over 20m from Davies (39:00).

Imperial were headed home by Sanchez (39:55) in 7th place overall putting in a blistering finish to pass Cambridge’s first back. He was followed by Bannon (41:10) in 23rd, Olley (41:39) in 35th, and Thomas (44:06) in 90th to finish the scoring. Freeman (46:20) followed in 141st and Ridley (47:17) brought the A-team home in 167th.

This finish placed Imperial in 7th overall, gaining us valuable and hard won BUCS points as a result of superb performances, with Chris Thomas particularly running the race of his life under immense pressure, some say his legs are still not working nearly a week later!

In the women’s race it was a less tactical affair, with the front pack going for it from the start around the steadily deteriorating course on their own 6km route. After a small pileup, when someone at the front of the 500 strong field took a tumble, the race was stretched out by last year’s runner up Emelia Gorecka who left no chance in the result this time to win by nearly 100m.

Thanks to some brilliant training in recent weeks, Sarah Johnson (25:24) was first home for Imperial in 37th, Imo Simmonds (25:48) following shortly after in 45th, Alex Mundell (26:08) finished the scoring coming back in 59th, no mean feat for someone more at home in an 800m race! These three great finishes meant the Women’s Team placed 8th – meaning more BUCS points!!

There were a further 8 finishers for Imperial including Kimberly Mason (29:27), Kara Meunier (32:24), Ophelie Meuriot (33:54), Anna Lawson (34:15), Lily Battershill (34:45), Freya Espir (34:56) and Women’s Captain Cloudy Carnegie (35:56).

They were spurred on by some excellent cheering from the guys, and when they began their second lap were greeted a support team so dedicated, they had gone topless in the cold to paint ‘I M P E R I A L’ on their chests! Perhaps distracted by such an impressive display, Freya managed to win the prize for muddiest finisher after taking a massive fall and losing her number!

Up last was the men’s B(anter) race, the 8 km course was now a state being just a river of mud with the occasional bog, rock littered path, or near vertical descent to break the brown monotony.

The race went out at a full on sprint as happens each year with the hotly contested first corner being taken by a sprinter who narrowly edged out a Durham runner painted head to toe in purple paint! The front of the race was as always dominated by St. Mary’s and Birmingham running cyborgs who blasted their way round the course seemingly unaffected by the mud or now typically British ‘character building’ weather.

Imperial’s men put in a strong showing as ever with Simon Prigent leading the charge with French flair in 121st (30:55) he was closely followed by strong run by Joss Knight who held on over the challenging climbs to 190th (32:50) with Club Captain Matt Douthwaite hot on his heels despite recovering from illness in 210th (33:16).

Spirits were lifted on the killer course when the girls reciprocated the guys display of support with ‘IC XC!’ painted on their stomachs! For some reason they decided not to flash anything more than their stomachs..... but it was just what a load of tired guys need 4k into an 8k XC race.

Feeling at home in the muddy environment, Will Jones came in a short while later in 34:07, though he would have preferred the race to be a bit longer! Duncan Ingram (returning from a year in industry specially) and triathlete Tom Miller (probably missing his bike) impressively followed in 34:42 and 35:53 respectively.

Rob O’Keeffe (36:14) showed it’s not all about the race with a show for the crowd, flashing some shotgun poses and repeating his legendary belly-slide down the muddiest hill. Sadly the camera’s weren’t rolling at this point.

The 220m of ascent were challenging to experienced and new club members alike, with Alwyn Elliott, taking part in his final BUCS, finishing in 38:17 and James Tebbutt finishing in 40:45, not far behind our signing from Scotland Marcus Ingram (36:30). Paul Vidal (39:02), Matt Tilley (39:42), Charlie Williams (41:11) and Felix Nicol (41:32) also performed at their debut BUCS XC. Lawrence Tse (43:00) showed is dedication to the club once again by running not at full fitness and 400m runner Henryk Hadass (44:41) decided to try something new.

After the excitement of all the races, the team demolished the tonnes and tonnes of cakes, cookies and scones lovingly baked by various club members (seriously they were amazing!). Even the fantastic cheer squad of Liam Smith, James Ellis and Tom Stokes – who were out due to injury but knew how amazing the weekend would be – were knackered. Stuffed full but getting very cold and wet, there was just time for a quick team photo before heading back into Brighton for the celebrations to begin!

The group headed to the down to the ‘sea view’ hostel a perfectly located base just 260m from the afterparty. After a hot shower (for about 5 of us) and a cold one for the rest, the team headed over to Taste of the Sahara for the start of the evenings celebrations.

The theme of the evening was ‘dress to impress’ and so Imperial’s team interpreted this by channelling our inner-Brighton and wearing matching tie-dye t-shirts, lovingly prepared the previous weekend by Will, Cloudy and others. The food at Taste of the Sahara was delicious and the drinks were numerous.

After the delicious meal, we returned to the seafront to the BUCS after-party which was being held at Shooshh, which looked right out onto the sea.

Of course we first had to have an obligatory Tie-dye-team-on-the-beach photo before entering the club to set the trend in true ICXC fashion. We attracted many an envious compliment for our tie-dye outfits and were by far the best dressed there! – you might say they were tie-dye for!

Spirits high, the party lasted until the early hours – though some members of the team were forced to head home slightly earlier than others. Some stayed it out however and there were talks of the higher level athletes showing the most stamina on the night out too, with a rumoured 4am scholarship selfie.

The next many shaken figures dragged themselves down to breakfast – some still in tie-dye out fits.

From the cheering, shouting and singing, there were suddenly a lot fewer people able to speak, and only one made on a morning run. There was a lot of sleeping on the train home and much resting will be needed for the HYDE PARK RELAYS on Saturday 7th Feburary.

If you want to join the epic adventures of Cross Country and Athletics, find us on Facebook or email run@imperial.ac.uk.