British Masters title for Super Mum Gaby 

Battersea Park has become the venue for many recent road racing events and on a very wet Sunday morning it was the turn of the British Masters Athletics Federation 5km road race championships for the second year in a row.

There were strong entries in several age groups and at the very front of all the female competitors Herne Hill’s Gaby Reynolds led the way, leaving younger veteran women in her wake.

In being first woman across the line, the 43-year-old claimed the British W40 title with her 17:16clocking, enjoying a clear winning margin of over 90 seconds over the next finisher in her category.

Reynolds’ return to top level racing has been remarkable, having given birth to her third child as recently as April of this year. This is the second national gold medal she has won since making her comeback as she was also a key member of Harriers’ historic senior women’s team who won the English Road Relay Championship in Sutton Coldfield in October. 

To add to her collection, Reynolds also led the Herne Hill W35-44 team to silver medals in conjunction with fellow W40 Susan Grounds (22:07) and W60 Sarah Allen (28:06).

The M45-54 team brought home gold medals with good performances from M50s Simon Coombes (fifth in 16:30) and Ben Paviour (sixth in 16:33) plus M45 Ben Millar (10th in 17:05). Further backup was provided by another M50 Robin Jones (19th in18:23). Reynolds’ husband Bryn was the sole Harriers representative in the M35 age group placing 8th in this category with 17:18.

The M60s field was exceptional, with an unprecedented depth of performance. Despite both running superb times for their age David Taylor and Graeme Moyse found their 17:45 and 17:50 were only sufficient for eighth and 11th respectively around the fast Battersea circuit.

On Saturday, the Surrey Cross Country League held the second of four fixtures for young athletes in Nonsuch Park, the senior women and men having already run their races earlier in November.

The Herne Hill Under 17 women pulled off an excellent team win with Maeve Minielly 2nd, Orla Carroll 8th, Lily Kitto 15th and Martha Brennan 23rd. 

There were individual race winners for the club in the Under 13 girls’ and boys’ races through the efforts of Skyla O’Brien and Henry Kucerov. The Under 13 girls were third team, with the other scoring team members being Marnie Millar eighth, Isobel McLennan 17th and Eva Burke 23rd. The U13 boys went one better in placing second team, courtesy of first placed Kucerov, Josiah Aldham third, John Reynolds ninth and Anton Thomas 16th.

The teams for Under 15 boys and Under 17 men are combined scores and Harriers were third on the day. The first three of the four to score team are Under 15, racing mainly older athletes. Tommy Clerkin was ninth overall, but second U15, Leau Roch was 14th and was third U15, Arnold Duan was 22nd and was seventh U15 and the team was closed by U17 Alfie Bryan 24th overall. The Under 15 girls were fifth team with Sofia Mendes seventh, Clementine Cole 17th, JoJo Solley 40th and Asisse Ubhi 44th.

Further afield, Sunday saw club members racing in the Valencia Marathon. Here there was a big PB for Sam Brashaw clocking 2:27:43. Close behind him was 39-year-old Jack Brotchie with his own PB time of 2:27:54. Next in was Ross Brown with 2:38.44, then John Cousins ran a PB 2:44:52. The women also ran well as Charlotte Spencer recorded 3:14:36 and Hannah Edwards 3:31:34.

At the London Universities and Colleges indoor track competition at Lee Valley on Saturday the team from St George’s University featured some Harriers athletes, with a couple of these running PBs.

Grace Leyland produced a strong front running win in the women’s 3000m, recording a big PB of 10:08.12. Tom O’Mahoney ran two lifetime bests as he placed fourth in the men’s 1500m in 4:10.47 and then followed up with second in his 3000m in 8:50.62.

This coming weekend at the European Cross Country Championships in Anatalya, Turkey more Herne Hill Harriers history will be made as for the first time ever there will be two athletes from the club competing in a Great Britain team in the same event. 

Poppy Craig-McFeely was an automatic selection for the Under 23 women’s team after placing fourth in the trial race in Liverpool last month and then a few days later Phoebe Anderson was added to the same team as a discretionary selection based on her stellar form while competing in NCAA races in the USA in the past few weeks. The event will be screened on the BBC red button Sunday morning.

Geoff Jerwood