Herne Hill Harriers enjoyed a very successful Surrey County championships at Kingsmeadow last weekend winning a total of 53 medals (21 golds, 17 silvers and 15 bronze medals) spanning all age groups.
Senior international long jumper Jade Johnson jumped 6.25m as she started her bid to compete in a third Olympic Games to win another County championship, whilst in the under 13 age group there were double wins from talented youngsters Denisha Marshall-Brown (under 13 girls 100m and shot) and Sam Cohen (under 13 boys 800m and high jump).
Katie Snowden and Aisha Naibe Wey both set championship best performances in the under 20 womens age group. Katie celebrated her selection for the Great Britain junior 4 x 400m team at this Sunday’s Loughborough International meeting by defeating arch rival Georgia Peel and national indoor champion and HHH HCA member Maddy Austin in the 800m in a time of 2.08.45 and Aisha showed the benefits of an excellent winter by winning the 400m hurdles in 61.42.
A good number of athletes from the club set PBs as the medals accumulated over the weekend with notable improvements including Tayo Andrews 1.90m in winning the under 17 mens high jump and Michella Obijiaki whose winning throw of 12.16m in the under 15 girls shot putt was one of the longest in the country so far this summer.
Jess Knight recorded two PBs despite windy conditions as she claimed gold in the under 20 women’s 200m and silver in the 400m. In the senior men’s 400m HHH enjoyed a great 1-2 as Peter Phillips overhauled Sammy Croll Mensah in the final straight. Gavin Johnson Assoon threw a PB to win the men’s javelin, Julien Allwood got his season off to a fine start in winning the men’s triple jump and Robert Graham overcame a knee problem to win the blue riband men’s 100m final.
Marvin Popoola won the under 17 men’s 200m, Blade Ashby the under 20 men’s 110m hurdles, while some potential HHH stars of the future were on show and in addition to Denisha and Sam, fellow under 13’s Alexandra Brown and Eloise O’Shaughnessy impressed in placing 2nd and 3rd in the girls 800m. Faysel Nadew was impressive in winning over the same distance in the under 15 boys age group in what was a very good all round showing from our club members.