Richmond Park was the setting last Saturday for the South of the Thames Cross Country Championship with Belgrave Harriers romping to an outstanding win over the seven-and-a-half mile circuit picking up every single award of the afternoon.

Only once before has a single club provided all three individual medalists - and that was in 1895 when Queen Victoria still had six years of her reign ahead of her.

In the early stages of the race Belgrave's leading trio of Gary Staines, Jim Estall and Kassa Tadesse broke away from the field with a lone runner from Brighton the only man able to go with them.

In fifth place the 800 metre specialist Clive Gilby, also running for Belgrave, was racing well over his normal distance with the Bels. Junior captain, 18-year-old Kevin Quinn, was also in the scoring positions.

Kassa Tadesse, the national 10-miles road-race champion, had just recently returned from several weeks of high-quality training in Kenya and his fitness was evident to all as he broke away from his colleagues on the last lap to gain a half-minute margin over Gary Staines. Kassa, whose winning time was 39 mins 32 secs, will now decide whether to attempt an assault on the National Cross Country Championships in March.

It was a difficult run for Staines, European 5,000 metre silver medalist from a few years back.

Veteran international Jim Estall did not do him any favours either, attempting to break away from Gary as the race drew to a close.

Staines admitted: "If it had been anyone else I probably would have let them go. But I couldn't let a veteran from my own club beat me!" Staines successfully kept Estall at bay by seven seconds with 40 mins 4 secs.

With the first three men home and then Gilby fifth in 41 mins 26 secs, Belgrave were set up with a flying start to the team race; and with Ray Foley placing 13th in 43 mins 9 secs and then Mike Webb closing in the team in 27th, the Bels had notched up one of the best scores of all time time to win with 51 points from Brighton's 134 and Ranelagh's 213. It was 34 years since the club had last won the title.

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