Alexandra Palace XC race report

The race begins - credit Cheng Li Ke

The 4th and penultimate LCL cross-country race is usually extremely popular in the post-Christmas holiday season and took place this year on the last Wednesday of January at Alexandra Park. Despite the cold and the mist, the conditions were ideal for great performances for both women’s 4K and men’s 6K.

The race begins - credit Cheng Li Ke
The race begins – credit Cheng Li Ke

With no surprise, Emma Dixon, representing the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), took the lead completing the race in 17:15. Lily Coward from St Mary and UCL runner Emma Butcher followed with times of 17:43 and 17:46 respectively. Dixon therefore maintains her first place in the women’s individual league. Furthermore, the Alexandra Palace race welcomed the first female University of London Alumni runner, wearing the colours of Motspur Alumni Athletics Club.

With 4 runners in the top 15, the UCL female team keeps its first place in the ladies university team ranking with 1416 points overall, followed by St Mary’s and Brunel, who are 20 and 162 points behind, respectively.

 

On the gents’ side, Dan Jarvis of St Mary’s, won the race by 4 seconds with a time of 22:43; closely followed by Duncan Tomlin (UL). Despite being an inch from the victory, Tomlin’s great performance was enough to keep him to the first place of the men’s individual ranking. Charlie Haywood (from UCL) managed as well to keep his overall second place, arriving fourth in the race with 23:17, after Jagger from St Mary’s who finished with a time of 22:53.

The fast performances that the men’s St Mary’s team delivered allowed them to keep their first place with an overall of 2887 points.

 

Although on the individual side the rankings seem to be settled, Bushy Park could lead to some changes in the team’s rankings. Indeed, St Mary’s ladies team stand a chance of taking the first place from UCL. On the men’s side, the first place seems to be confirmed for St Mary’s, but UCL and Imperial men’s will have to fight for the second place, as UCL is only 40 points ahead of Imperial.

 

Bushy Park is the race not to miss! Further information will be provided very soon on the LUCA website. Meanwhile, stay updated with the BUCS XC competition, which happened on the 4th February.

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About Shala Nourmamode 4 Articles
Keen of Neuroscience and Sport, and highly interested about non-communicable diseases; Shala is has completed a MSc. in Global Health at UCL and graduated in Neuroscience at King's.