European Masters Champs silver medals for Cummings, Thurgood and de Mauny

Mike Cummings of Herne Hill Harriers and now Great Britain Masters won a  M35 1500m silver medal on Saturday 7th September at the European Masters Championship currently taking place in Venice.

Clocking a fast 3.58.05, Cummings ran an astute tactical race and was only beaten by a Flying Dutchman who achieved a 3.55 performance on the big championship stage.
Cummings races again in the M35 800m heats on Wednesday and will hope for another high placing in the final on Friday assuming a safe qualification.
This was superb follow up to Friday’s silver medal won by Harriers club mate Stuart Thurgood in the M40 weight throw 15.88kg. Thurgood’s PB throw of 15.44m is for new Herne Hill club men’s record and a fitting reward for another strong season.
Fiona de Mauny was on Saturday afternoon fifth in the W35 1500m final in 4.46.86. The 1500m was however de Mauny’s first of three events in Venice and on Monday she claimed the third silver medal won by a Herne hill athlete as she finished 2nd in the W35 400m.
De Mauny was timed at 59,06 behind a very fast Polish athlete who is still good enough to compete at senior international level and has this season been a pacemaker in women’s 800m races in some Diamond League meets in Europe. Like Cummings, de Mauny now moves on to the 800m heats on Wednesday and will again face the same Pole in this event.
Also competing in the first few days of the championship on Penelope Cummings placed sixth in the W40 5000m track race walk in 28.06.04, only just outside her PB, while Allan Long was also sixth in the M75 100m final in 14.90. Giuseppe Minettii reached the semifinals of the M50 400m but found his 56.19 not quite enough to qualify for the final as he narrowly missed out.
Moving from European Masters results to county championships, the Surrey track and field relays took place over the weekend at Sutton Arena.
Herne Hill were well represented in all of the younger age groups, led by the under 13 boys team who won gold medal in both the 4 x 100m and in their longer sprint relay.
The other Harriers gold medal team was the under 20 men who were first across the line in their 4 x 100m relay.
As in Venice, athletes from the club picked up a fine collection of silver medals as teams in the under 15 girls, under 17 women and under 17 men’s age groups all came second in their 4 x 100m races and in their longer relays. The under 15 boys were third in the 4 x 100m, while the under 13 girls were third in the longer relay and fourth in the 4 x 100m. Some very fine performances all round.
Away from the track, Jordan Foster moved further into ultra distance racing as she recorded an excellent result at the Thames Path 50km Challenge. Foster won the women’s race and actually placed second overall of all competitors with her excellent debut time for the distance of 4 hours 7 minutes and 41 seconds.
In road racing Myles Preston won the Run Through 10km in Weybridge in 34.28. Preston ran with two athletes from Winchester for the first 7km before deciding to make a break which proved decisive as his strong second half and particularly final 3km saw him take home a huge PB and the win.
Earlier in the week Arlo Ludewick ran 4.03.81 for a marginal PB in the A 1500m race at the South London Harriers Middle Distance meet on Wednesday evening.
Eoin Brady ran 4.27.22, also for 1500m and then in the 5000m races Jeff Cunningham ran 16.10.24, Raj Paranandi 16.14.92 and Matt Cartwright 16.29.54, all racing at a well organised specialist track competition evening.
Geoff Jerwood
Photo is of Mike Cummings finishing his silver medal 1500m race in Venice
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