Wimbledon Alumni Race 2024
The 72nd edition of the alumni race took place on the 14th September 2024. Thirteen OS assembled at the Thames Hare & Hounds HQ amongst two hundred runners from various other schools. We were fortunate to again have teams covering the open event, veteran event and almost a team for the lady’s event.
Most of the team had run here before but we had some new entrants with Georgina Boyd-Moss, Maria Mendoza Guerrero, Charlie Thwaytes and Sam Gunning. The course was fairly dry underfoot after dry weather, so not much mud. Fortunately the temperature on the day did not reach that of the previous year and running was bearable!
The race was won by a previous winner, James Hoad of Winchester, who completed the 5 mile course in 27:23. The Norman Berry cup for first place duly went to him. In the open team event a win looked very promising for Sherbourne who had managed to pack three runners within the top ten. Alas their fourth counter was unable to seal the team victory with 65th place. Luckily the Sedbergh squad were much better placed. Charles Sykes, showing good form, came home in 9th place (29:40), followed by Frederick Strachan (30:26), Peter Lehmann (31:48) and Sam Gunning (31:58). Henry Johnson was only 2 places behind Sam in 32:06, backing up the counters. It was this good packing that sealed a team win for Sedbergh. The open team results were Sedbergh 64 points, with Shrewsbury second and Harrow third, both tied on 71 points.
This was not the only team trophy of the day though. In the V40 team event for the Brentwood trophy Sedbergh took the title on 12 points, with Wellington College 2nd on 30 points and Rochester Math 3rd with 35 points. Our team counters here were Charles Sykes (1st), Henry Johnson (5th) and Henry Bolton (6th) on age related positions. Charles also won the V40 race and was 2nd in the age graded event. Georgina and Maria actually finished 4th team with penalty points, so hopefully a full ladies team next year will do well.
Full results of the race are available on the open track site: https://data.opentrack.run/en-gb/x/2024/GBR/thhar/
| Pos | Bib | Name | Cat | CatPos | Team (Team 2) | Time | |
| 9 | 151 | Charles Sykes | M45 | 1 | SEDBE(WESTT) | 29:40.00 | |
| 12 | 150 | Frederick Strachan | SM | 9 | SEDBE(THH) | 30:26.00 | |
| 19 | 147 | Peter Lehmann | SM | 14 | SEDBE(CHRLR) | 31:48.00 | |
| 24 | 145 | Sam Gunning | U20M | 1 | SEDBE | 31:58.00 | |
| 26 | 222 | Henry Johnson | M40 | 2 | SEDBE | 32:06.00 | |
| 27 | 142 | Henry Bolton | M45 | 4 | SEDBE | 32:08.00 | |
| 37 | 152 | Charlie Thwaytes | SM | 24 | SEDBE | 33:02.00 | |
| 57 | 149 | Thomas Ogden | SM | 28 | SEDBE | 34:35.00 | |
| 71 | 146 | Adam Hanline | M40 | 7 | SEDBE | 35:37.00 | |
| 92 | 143 | Georgina Boyd-Moss | SW | 5 | SEDBE | 37:24.00 | |
| 124 | 144 | Benjamin Collins | M40 | 16 | SEDBE(SEDBE) | 39:38.00 | |
| 135 | 153 | Geoff Watson | M45 | 17 | SEDBE(DURHC) | 40:41.00 | |
| 144 | 148 | Maria Mendoza Guerrero | SW | 9 | SEDBE | 41:34.00 | |
Geoff Watson (E 89-94)