Herne Hill Harriers under 15 girls combined events athlete Jasmine Nkoso travelled to Sheffield over the weekend for the England Athletics Indoor Age Group Championship at the English Institute of Sport.
The South of England indoor shot put champion brought home a superb national silver medal in the U15 girls shot final, throwing 12.46m on the day. Only 3cm shy of her PB, this performance continued her excellent season which has seen her also represent England Schools in an indoor home international match in Cardiff before Christmas. Also on Saturday Nkoso placed sixth in the long jump final with 4.99m.
The final Surrey League cross country fixture of the season was held in the grounds of West Horsley Place near Guildford around a circuit which featured plenty of mud and water under foot after recent heavy rain. Harriers had two individual winners on the day with Isobel Carter at the front of the U13 girls race and Caspian Holmes first among the U15 boys.
There was a team win for the U13 boys, with Edward Cunniffe second, Luca Boulton third, Henry Cucerov seventh and Josiah Aldham 12th. The U15 girls team placed second, led by Florence Mills in fifth, Lily Kitto sixth and Maeve Minielly tenth. In terms of the overall league season the club finished with three individual bronze medalists, with Sofia Mendes (U13 girls), Luca Boulton (U13 boys) and Leau Roch (U15 boys).
The highest placed Herne Hill team through the age groups over the four league races was the senior women, who started the season as defending Division 1 champions. Although not able to repeat this feat, they were third placed team both on the day and overall behind two of the most consistently strong teams in the South of England this winter.
New member Lucy Jones was first among the Harriers, making an exciting team debut in seventh to claim the club championship award in conjunction with this final race. Next finishers were Sophie Tooley and Jenny Nandi, claiming club silver and bronze medals with their highest positions in this league to date in tenth and 13th respectively. The third place A team was closed by Annie Dalton 35th and Shannon Sinclair 38th.
The women’s B team were second of the B teams both on Saturday and overall, the scorers at West Horsley being W40 Karen Ellison 44th, Megan Gildea 45th, W40 Sue Swaine 51st, Julia Wedmore 52nd and Hannah Edwards 60th. Although having to miss this last race through injury, Kaitlin Hewiit was third U20 woman overall thanks to good pergformances in the previous three races.
The men’s team finished sixth overall of the ten teams in Division 1 in probably the strongest season this league has seen for decades.
The scorers in the ten man seventh placed A team on the day were Ben Warren 32nd, Andrew Clarke 33rd, Daniel Shaw 47th, David Moyse 50th, John Franklin 58th, M40 Jeff Cunningham 62nd, James Nutt 69th, George Withers 72nd, Ashley Goncalves 74th and Alex Gutteridge 78th. Simon Coombes led the B team who were third among B squads on the day and was the overall winner of the M50 category for the season, while Cunningham was third M40 over the four league races.
USA based student Phoebe Anderson ran her first sub 9 minutes clocking for 3000m in the Husky Classic indoor track meet in Seattle. Her 8:59.70 has only ever so far been surpassed among Herne Hill females by club women’s record holder Katie Snowden’s 8:47.71 indoors last winter and before that Aussie star Chloe Tighe had run 8:55.90 outdoors. Anderson ran the 3000m after her original 5000m race was curtailed when one of her shoes was trodden on from behind and half removed. That race was game over for her, but she was then allowed to race the 3000m and recorded a very good PB.
In road racing Harry Roberts raced in the Barcelona Half Marathon and finihed 228th in a world class field. In his first ever race at this distance his debut time was a very impressive 72:21 which will qualify for a national championship entry into next year’s London Marathon.
Also on the road, Ro Hughes was 1st female in the Headcorn Half Marathon in Kent. She clocked a women’s course record 82:01 on hilly and uneven “roads”, which I think might be a marginal PB.
At the RunThrough Victoria Park Half Marathon Jonathan Ratcliffe was 14th overall and second M55 with his 80:09, while Chloe Wright was 11th female in a PB time of 87:11.
Geoff Jerwood