Clean sweep for Harriers in East Surrey League opener

Herne Hill Harriers scored a 1-2-3 in the opening fixture of the East Surrey League on 29 October providing a comfortable team win for the south London athletics club.

Benedict Whitby, a former commonwealth runner, Brian Wilder and Keith Newton took the first three places with Sam Knight in 8th completing the winning scoring men’s team.

The Harriers clean sweep extended to the younger age groups too, where the club had over 30 young athletes take part. Lascelles Hussey (3rd), Idiris Ali (4th) and Amin Jisow (6th) made up the winning U17/U15 team, while the Harriers had both 1st and 2nd teams in the U13 race, with Paul Burgess (1st), Saskia Millard (3rd) and Sam Cohen (4th) making up the winning team.

In other news, the Harriers enjoyed a record turnout at the Emer Casey Memorial 10k race in Brockwell Park on Sunday 30 October. The men’s race was won by Paolo Natali in 32 minutes and 22 seconds and Silvia Del Flava made it an Italian double, winning the women’s race in 37 minutes and 41 seconds.

2010 winner, Chris Busaileh, placed 2nd and led the Harriers’ men to a team victory, with 1st vet Brian Wilder placing 4th the day and Rupert Mainwaring closing the winning team in 19th.

Harriers’ Karen Ellison was 2nd in the women’s race and similarly led the HHH women to the team prizes, with Sue Swaine, placing 3rd and a new personal best by over a minute and Abby Penlington, who was 7th woman, completing the winning team.

The race was organised by the Herne Hill Harriers in partnership with the Emer Casey Foundation with proceeds going towards research in to detecting early signs of ovarian cancer and treatment.

Further afield, the Harriers’ Jonathan Stead was the 3rd British finisher in the Frankfurt Marathon on 30 October in a new personal best time of 2.27.27, while Paul Shiel also put in an excellent performance to record 2.53.27 in Dublin Marathon.