Herne Hill Harriers athletes are currently representing Great Britain at the European Masters Athletics Championship in Aarhus, Denmark which runs from 27 July through until 6 August and the first five days of competition have yielded two European bronze medals from our men.
On Sunday Simon Coombes placed a very bold third in the M45 1500m final having led from the gun to make sure of a true run race rather than the sort of tactical affairs that are often seen in middle distance races at championships. Coombes finished in a time of 4.10.80 to claim his place on the medals rostrum.
Then on Monday Tony Macdowall added to the Harriers and GB medals haul with his own fabulous bronze medal in the M35 3000m steeplechase final. Macdowall clocked the fine time of 10.31.87, which was less than a second outside his PB that was set back in 2012. Macdowall had earlier in the championship placed tenth in the M35 10000m in 35.35.98, while Giuseppe Minetti finished a very good seventh in the M45 100m final in 12.11, having stopped the clock at 12.06 in his semi-final earlier the same day.
Herne Hill athletes also competed at the England Championship and CAU UK Inter Counties Senior Championship at Bedford with the only medals of the weekend won by a club member being claimed by Penelope Cummings in the women’s 3000m walk. Cummings placed third in her race at the start of the events on Sunday, recording a time of 16.57.66. As third finisher in the race Cummings was awarded the England Championship bronze medal and also received the silver medal as second of the entrants in the CAU Inter Counties event, an excellent performance on the national stage.
Tayo Andrews and Allandre Johnson were both twelfth in their field event finals as Andrews cleared 2.01m in the men’s high jump and Johnson threw 58.09m in the men’s javelin. Under 20 star Kristal Awuah missed a place in the women’s 100m final by only one hundredth of a second with her 11.87, while Nicholas Atwell and Peter Phillips both qualified for the men’s 400m semi-finals, but found their times of 48.80 and 49.16 insufficient to progress into the final.
Middle distance runners Fiona de Mauny and Lascelles Hussey both saw their racing action ended before midday on the Saturday as they exited from their 800m heats which both featured very similarly slow first laps with the customary Bedford wind blowing. De Mauny was sixth in her heat in 2.14.90 and Hussey fifth in his in 1.57.40 and for both this represented good experience of championship racing. Jade Phillips also contested the women’s 100m with Awuah, placing sixth in her heat in 12.61.
Herne Hill’s youngsters were in action in the Derek Crookes Southern U13 Inter counties match at Kingsmeadow Stadium on Saturday on a cool afternoon, encountering steady rain in the second half of the meeting as conditions worsened.
Surrey Under 13 boys won their match helped by Clayton Mytil’s third place in the opening 75m hurdles race in 12.38. Mytil was supported by 800m runs from Christo Chilton with a win in 2.23.63 and a new PB for Fabien Hurst in 2.24.15.
Surrey Under 13 girls finished a close third to Hampshire and Kent with Sapphire Haley setting a new PB of 13.21 in the 100m and Farrah Martin finishing third overall in the long jump with a new PB 4.61m. In the distance races Phoebe Bowen ran well for fourth place in the 1500m in 5.13.46 and Zoe Crugywen ran 2.41.5 in the 800m to equal her PB.
Geoff Jerwood