Herne Hill Harriers take gold at Cross Country Championships (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Herne Hill Harriers take gold at Cross Country Championships

12:22pm Thursday 24th November 2011 in Athletics By Sarwar Khan

Herne Hill Harriers' senior men's team won the London Cross Country Championship at Parliament Hill on Saturday - finally claiming gold after a number of near misses in recent years, writes Sarwar Khan.

The club's scoring quartet scored 43 points to win the team race by 20 points ahead of Serpentine Running Club, while Harriers' women's team came seventh overall.

Chris Busaileh was the club's top finisher as he came home in sixth place in 34 minutes exactly, two minutes and 11 seconds behind the winner.

Veteran Brian Wilder, 40, followed up his great Surrey League second place by finishing close behind Busaileh in eighth in 34:07 and winning the M40 gold medal.

The Harriers' winning quartet was closed by Ben Paviour in 10th in 34:26 and Mike Cummings in 19th in 35:16.

In the senior women's race, Harriers were led home by Karen Ellison in 10th in 23:22, backed up well by Sue Swaine, 33rd in 25:13, and U20 Julia Wedmore, 51st in 26:14.

The London Youth Games cross country championships were held at the same venue earlier in the day, with youngsters representing their London borough teams.

Paul Burgess won the U13 boy's race to top the podium, while two HHH athletes were in the medals in the U13 girl's race as Breagha Campbell placed second and Saskia Millard was third.

Campbell, Millard and new HHH member Kate Brown formed the winning Wandsworth team in the U13 girl's race.