Herne Hill Harriers young athletes continued their excellent cross country form by winning three agegroups at the London Youth Games at Parliament Hill on Saturday. Oscar Millard (representing Wandsworth) won the U11 boys race, sister Saskia Millard (Wandsworth)the U13 girls race and Ed Olsen(Southwark) the U15 boys race.
The club had over forty youngsters representing their London Boroughs and they contributed greatly to Wandsworth girls team success. All of the Wandsworth U13 girls winning team of Saskia Millard, Alex Brown (4th) & Eloise O’Shaunessey (9th) were from the club as were all of the winning U17 girls Wandsworth team of Billie Barbour, Georgie Hay & Francesca Meade. Wandsworth won the overall girls team title with Under 15 girls Kate Brown & Skye O’Shaunessey in the scoring Wandsworth team so the club provided we had 8 of the borough’s 9 scorers.
In the London championships the senior mens team looked like they may have a chance of retaining their trophy with three men : Tim Elsey 13th, Mohammed Ismail 16th & Ben Paviour 19th in the top twenty but then a gap to their fourth finisher scuppered their medal chances whilst Suzanne Swaine returned to form with a good 17th place in the womens race. Ben won the M40 mens gold medal for first veteran man finisher.
On Sunday a small group of youngsters traveled to the Camberley open cross country meeting and retuned with lots of medals. Ed Olsen won the Under 15 boys race for an excellent double win over the weekend & Bozena Fanner-Bryinza won the under 13 girls race. The U15 boys team of Ed Olsen Billy Black & Mohamed El Theri won retaining their trophy for second year, Francesca Reid Lloyd was second in U15 girls race and Flo Anderson 3rd in under 13 girls race whilst the U11 team of Johnny Moyse, David Moyse and Louis Edwards finished second team.
Amongs the many road races performances over the weekend the highlight was Mike Cummings excellent PB of 70.56 in the Gosport half marathon. In the Luton Marathon Jonathan Radcliffe placed an excellent 4th overall in a time of 2.45.06 and was first veteran.
Steve Bosley.