Holden takes plaudits at Cross Country Championships (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Holden takes plaudits at Cross Country Championships

2:25pm Thursday 15th December 2011 in Athletics

South London Harrier Tom Holden stole the show on Saturday with a scintillating display at the SEAA Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships, writes Oliver Collis.

The 14-year-old ran a spellbinding 12 minutes, 50 seconds to capture gold in the U15s 4,000m race at Lloyd Park, Croydon.

The young Englishman repeated his success from last year’s championships, making it a glorious double for the Surrey-based whiz kid.

Holden grabbed the first gold of the day and the South London Harriers assault continued as Andy Tindall recorded victory in the V50s race, clocking 37:15 over the testing 10,000m circuit to beat Herne Hill Harriers’s Mike Boyle by 17 seconds.

South London clinched gold in the men’s V50-59 team event after Chris Phelan finished eighth in 38:14 with teammate John Foss securing the win in 11th place, before Ian Kitching, won the V60s title in a time of 40:00.

The club’s women won South London’ fifth gold of the day as Christina Costiff’s second-place in the V50-55 race led Jo Quantrill, Pam Iannella and Trudy Kuhn home to win the V50-59 team race.

Beckie Woodland, 30, finished ninth in 25:27 to help Surrey’s senior women win team gold.

Elsewhere, Croydon Harriers’ Peter Chambers, 16, helped Surrey clinch a team bronze medal in the U17 men’s event as he clocked 17:01 to finish eighth.