James Mason was the pick of Herne Hill Harriers’ athletes at the London Marathon, clocking two hours, 33 minutes, as he finished 62nd out of more than 35,000 runners. James was one of seven Harriers’ entrants to break the three-hour barrier, with Mason’s final time of 2:33.18 placing him among the finest club athletes in Britain. Debbie Jackson, meanwhile, became Harriers’ female marathon champion, posting a time of 3:24.47 to finish 426th in the women’s race and 3,860th overall.
The battle to be Herne Hill’s second-placed runner was narrowly won by prolific marathoner Jonathan Ratcliffe, who overtook several of his rivals in the final three miles to finish 349th in 2:45.45. Ratcliffe was closely followed by Mohammed Ismail (366th) and James Fooks-Bale (367th), who recorded identical times of 2:46.27. Tom Kingham finished strongly in 380th, 15 seconds behind Ismail and Fooks-Bale. Robin Jones also claimed a top-500 finish, with his 2:49.03 time good enough for 494th. Harriers’ seventh man to dip under three hours was Robert Edwards (1,217th) who ran a negative split to finish in 2:59.10, while Richard Wonnacott (1,466th) fell agonisingly short, clocking 3:01.38. Other Herne Hill runners to complete the 26.2-mile course were Amy Rolston (6,196th in 3:39.12), Nicky St Clair (6,778th in 3:42.22), Ed Barrow (8,641st in 3:51.11), Raj Singh (8,758th in 3:51.42), Philip Henwood (9,480th in 3:54.38) and Izzie Bannister (22,609th in 4:51.32).
Away from the main race, national cross country champion Katy Ann McDonald transferred her form to the road, coming first in the Mini London Marathon in the British and London boroughs U13 girls’ championships. Despite competing in the youngest age category, McDonald’s time was the 15th fastest of all girls. Ed Olsen was second in the London boroughs U15 boys’ race and fifth in the British championships.
On the track, Lewis Lloyd once again ran close to his personal best over 800m in the second race of a US tour representing Achilles AC (Oxbridge). Lloyd finished fourth in a race at Boston, clocking 1:54.85, narrowly outside his best time for the distance. There were also parkrun personal bests for Gary Ironmonger (17.56) and Robin Sanderson (17.59) at Brockwell Park, with the runners finishing in third and fourth and respectively.
Jonny Muir.