A glorious day for racing at London's Parliament Hill, for the 125th running of the Senior Mens National XC Championships. The jinx that had cost the club so many runners in the build up to the race, struck during the race as Scott Campbell suffered a recurrence of an ankle problem and was forced to drop out shortly after 2miles. Fortunately for the club - with the deciding Gwent League rapidly approaching - John Terry showed a return to form to finish 320th in a time of 43.16 for the challenging 12km course, whilst Chris Palmer finished in 44.52 for 451st place.
It seems that Westbury were not the only club affected by the jinx as our colleagues over the way, B&W also suffered, losing Robbie Bugden to an injury suffered during the race and Mike Jacobs collapsed just before the finish, but in a herculean effort, picked himself up and struggled across the line. Earlier on in the day Nathan Young also pulled out, which cost the Junior men a chance of a medal!
Let's hope we can get a much better turn out next year at what has to be the ultimate racing experience. Anyone who has stood at the side of, or better still stood in the middle of, can attest to the truly awing experience of having 1500+ feet simultaneously pounding off up a hill at the start of a race. The ground shakes, yet it's eerily quiet. The National. There's nothing quite like it!
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