ZAK Mahamed was the star of the Southampton AC show at the South of England AA Cross-Country Championships at a very muddy Parliament Hill Fields in London.

Mahamed won the under-13 boys’ race by ten seconds and will go to the English National Championships in four weeks’ time at the top of his form. Jack Higgins was 133rd, Max Satterly 184th and Ben Bowles 219th out of the 284 finishers to ensure the team were 29th.

Mo Mahamed just missed out on a family double by taking the silver medal in the U17 men’s race – just three seconds behind winner Jordan Rowe. Illness, injury and work commitments denied the U17 men’s team a medal and reduced them to just three competitors. Abdi Mahamed was 62nd and Tom Cully was 129th out of 209 finishers.

The senior athletes had to contend with wind, rain and hail as well as mud.

Southampton’s Matt Revier defied the conditions to achieve a top-40 finish in 38th. Tom Muddiman was 354th, Nick Willson 553rd, Paul Johnson 627th and Chris Taylor and Paul Harvey represented the club committee in 968th and 981st out 986 finishers. This brought the team home in 85th place.

In the senior women’s race, Karen Rushton was 90th, Nicci Blandford 130th, Hannah Coombs 239th and Lynn Massey 384th out of 466 finishers. The team finished 35th.

Stephen Simpson ran a superb race to place seventh U20 man. Frances Arnott was 45th in the women’s equivalent.

Sam Costley (13th) and Luke Powell (17th) both achieved top-20 finishes for Southampton’s U15 boys.

For the U13 girls, Holly Powell was 37th, Grace Reavey was 119th, Poppy Wright 144th and Izzy Bennett 218th to bring the team home 25th. Olivia Reavey was 237th out of 292 finishers.

In the U17 women’s race, Caitlin Stewart was 27th, Alana Spiers was 53rd, Anna Sharp 66th and Briallen Taylor 134th out of 151 finishers. The Southampton team came seventh.

Hannah Polden was 174th and Anna Reavey 234th out of 285 finishers in the U15 girls’ event. Reavey contributed to a unique statistic for the club of having three brothers (the Mahameds) and three sisters (the Reaveys) all competing in the same event. The cross-country juggernaut continues for the young athletes today (1pm) with the South-East Schools’ Inter-Counties Championships at Southampton Sports Centre.