Summer 2013 Fixture Card

27 April 2013

The fixture card for the 2013 summer season is now available for download here.

HHH U13 girls romp to National road relays title

14 April 2013

Herne Hill Harriers' U13 girl's team capped a remarkable winter season on Sunday by becoming national road relay champions. The winning trio were led off by Alex Brown, who despite being knocked over at the start, finished her leg in second place, with Saskia Millard then running Herne Hill into a lead that they would never relinquish. By the time national cross country champion Katy Ann McDonald crossed the line in Birmingham's Sutton Park, the winning margin was 98 seconds, with the girls' overall time just eight seconds shy of the course record. All three girls were also among the top-10 individual legs, with McDonald first, Millard third and Brown eighth.

Meanwhile, the phenomenal strength in depth of our U13 girl's squad was once again demonstrated, with a Herne Hill C team finishing 16th, eclipsing our B team in 21st. Herne Hill's U15 girl's, U15 boy's and U13 boy's teams were also in action at Sutton Park, with the squads finishing 11th, 24th and 30th respectively. Standout performers included Oscar Millard for the U13 boy's team and Ed Olsen, who ran the fourth fastest of all legs in the U15 boy's event.

Herne Hill's senior athletes competed at the same venue a day earlier, with the women finishing 18th and the men 21st in the National Road Relay Championships. The event doubled as the Southern road relay event following the cancellation of the meeting due to snow last month. In the context of this championship, the women's squad of six runners finished eighth, while the men's team of 12 was ninth.

Karen Ellison's first leg for Harriers secured the club in 31st, with Julia Wedmore dropping back five positions on leg two. The cumulative efforts of Laura Dowsing, Estefania Escobedo and Jo Ritson then took Harriers from 36th to 22nd in three legs. Cathy Ansell then ran a strong last leg - the 26th fastest of any woman on the day - to bring Harriers up to a finishing position of 18th in a women's race in which we have been rarely, if ever represented in past years.

The men's '12-stage' race is traditionally run as a series of alternate long and short legs. Herne Hill's men were led off by Chris Busaileh, who would be the club's fastest man on the long leg, steering Harriers into 28th position in a fiercely-contested opening leg. Stages from Simon Coombes, Ben Paviour, Jorge Raso Gea, Mark Dooley, Deron Fagan, John Kettle and Dave Mulvee, the fastest short leg runner in our team, brought Harriers to 23rd. Jeff Cunningham gained a further place and Mohammed Ismail two, with James Fooks-Bale maintaining 20th. Despite the efforts of Basil Wallace on the final leg, Harriers slipped one place to 21st out of 72 teams in the National competition. A great effort and a good improvement on our 25th place in 2012.

Elsewhere on the road, Robert Edwards smashed his 5km personal best at the Dulwich parkrun, running 16:47 to finish 5th in a competitive fields, while Gary Ironmonger was seventh at the Brockwell Park version, clocking 18:10. On the track, Hannah Edwards won her 400m event at the Tom O'Mahoney Memorial meeting in Liverpool, clocking 61.8.

International and National wins for Katy Ann and Saskia

31 March 2013

Herne Hill Harriers' U13 girl's squad came to the fore once again at the weekend, with both Katy-Ann McDonald and Saskia Millard securing victories. Representing England, McDonald was first at the Schools' Cross Country International at Dinefwr Park, Llandeilo, clocking 10:48 on the 3000m course. Her victory was all the more impressive because she was racing in an U15 event, meaning she was several years younger than her counterparts.

Meanwhile, Millard was victorious in the U13 girl's category of the Pentathlon GB Schools' Biathlon Final at Crystal Palace. Millard had to do a 1000m run in Arctic conditions on the track and ran from the front, winning her heat by 20 seconds with a time of 2.59.76, and winning overall fastest run time for her year group, with the girl in second running 3.16.68. While swimming is not Millard's forte, she managed to hold onto her lead with a 1.12.75 swim over 100m, meaning she beat last year's winner, Jessica Mannings, by 20 points to take the National School's biathlon title with a total of 2542 points.

Further from home, 18-year-old Lewis Lloyd won his first international vest, as he represented Great Britain in the U20 men's race at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, where he finished 77th.

Also on the continent in San Sebastian, veteran hammer thrower Stuart Thurgood won a silver medal at the European Indoor Masters Championship in the M35 weight throw. Stu launched the 15.88kg implement 15.92m, a distance which was not as far as his 16.04m outdoors at Lee Valley with snow under foot a couple of weeks earlier, a performance which won him the British national title. Stu will be a key member of our British League men's track and field team this summer.

Another weekend winner was senior athlete Ross MacDonald who the Leith Hill half-marathon in 1 hour, 22 minutes, 21 seconds, more than four minutes clear of second place. MacDonald's time took two minutes off the course record and he then cycled 22 miles home with a bottle of champagne in his bottle rack.

Lewis heads for World Cross after breakthrough run at Inter Counties

16 March 2013

Lewis Lloyd has become Herne Hill Harriers' first representative at the World Cross Country Championships for 26 years after impressing selectors at a trial. The 18-year-old finished fourth in the U20 men's 8km race at the Inter Counties cross country event at Birmingham's Cofton Park, which was the trial for the world championships.

Lloyd's run, a huge breakthrough by one of the club's most talented young runners means he has won a highly coveted berth on the British men's junior team for the race in Bydgoszcz, Poland, on March 24. The Cambridge University student is the first HHH athlete at the championships since Basil Brown ran for Jamaica in the senior men's race in 1987.

Lew's performance - which also helped Surrey claim first place in the U20 men's team event - preceded another exceptional run in which Katy Ann McDonald added another gold medal to her 2013 collection by winning the U13 girl's race. Not only did McDonald - reigning Surrey and national cross country champion - win the 3km race by a whopping 22 seconds, but because the event doubled as the final race in the McCain UK Cross Challenge event, she also secured overall victory in the four-race series.

Were it not for McDonald's extraordinary run of success, the attention would otherwise be focused on Saskia Millard, who finished seventh and was pivotal in Surrey's victory in the U13 girl's team race. Harriers' other top-10 finisher was Ed Olsen who was 8th in U15 boy's race. The club was also represented in Birmingham by John Tayleur (161st in the men's U20 race) and senior men Tim Elsey (156th) and Mike Cummings (158th).

Away from cross country, a small but select band of Herne Hill Harrier veterans took part in the British Masters Athletic Federation indoor championships at Lee Valley at the weekend, and came away with five gold medals between them. In his first season as an M50, Masakatsu Kondo achieved a double first, recording 7:76 in the 60m final, having earlier won his heat, which included all the eventual medalists. He moved on immediately to the long jump, which he won fairly comfortably with a jump of 5.71 metres.

Allan Long, having moved up to M70 towards the end of last summer, also brought off a double win in the same events as Kondo. He was fast out of the blocks in the sprint, on his way to a time of 8:75 This places him fourth on the national indoor all time list for M70s. Earlier in the morning, Allan had won the long jump with a leap of 4.13 metres. This did not quite match his 4.20 when winning the South of England veterans' indoor event a couple of weeks ago - an effort that placed him fourth on the all time list.

M40 Dave Peters raced from the front to win the 800m by more than two seconds in 2:02.51. This was not quite as fast as his 2:01.6 in New York and he would have welcomed slightly stiffer competition.

On the road, Cathy Ansell won the Fradley 10k in Lichfield in a time of 35.36 after an exuberant first 5k of around 17.23 and in freezing weather conditions.