Herne Hill Harriers’ Georgie Grgec led the senior women’s A team to 15th place of 64 complete teams in the English National Road Relays on Saturday at Sutton Coldfield.
Taking over in 36th position, Grgec stormed through the field to complete her stint in 13:59 and elevated her team to 12th at the halfway point.
Her time was comfortably the quickest on her stage and stood up as the second fastest individual run overall of the day around the undulating 4.33km lap run by the senior women.
Harriers women filled three teams for the first time ever at this event. The A team finished 15th, the B team were 31st overall, and fifth of all B teams, while the C team came 52nd overall.
The A team was Charlotte Davies (15:53), Grgec (13:59), Grace Leyland (15:58) and Rachel Gibson (15:57). The B team were Jenny Nandi (16:21), Sophie Tooley (16:00), Sophie Gunning (16:18) and Annie Dalton (16:28). The C team were formed by Liv Stillman (16:23), Julia Wedmore (17:20), U20 Hebe Hunter (17:12) and Jemima Hayward-Bhikha (19:43).
The men’s team placed 21st, their highest position for a number of years, having moved up to 10th after four of the six stages of 5.8km, courtesy of Sam Bramwell, who gained nine places with a strong leg.
The team comprised Lewis Laylee (18:18), Brandon Dewar (18:11), Daniel Shaw (18:15), Sam Bramwell (17:35), Mike Cummings (19:22) and Andrew Clarke (18:52), all putting in fine performances in a ultra-competitive event which saw 72 full teams finish the race.
Harriers U15 boys’ A team achieved the highest team position from the club on the day as Tommy Clerkin, James Clements-Nash and Caspian Holmes finished 11th of 73 teams from around the country.
The U15 girls A team of Sophie Jack, Florence Mills and Maeve Minielly were 16th of 58 teams, the U17 men were 31st of 71 teams thanks to Warren Wilson, Keeran Sriskandarajah and Alex Wilson.
The U17 women had a B team ahead of their A team as Izzy Perry, Vivi Marshall and Rosalie Laban finished 26th ahead of India Blakey, Eva O’Hanlon and Grace O’Hanlon who were 32nd.
On Sunday morning Morgan Roberts ran a big PB to finish 22nd at the Eindhoven Marathon with a fast 2:26.50. Roberts is showing impressive progress as an athlete who is relatively new to competitive racing and structured training.
U20 Robin Bebbington made his long distance debut at the Royal Parks Half Marathon on Sunday and recorded an excellent inaugural PB time of 75:31, placing 13th overall in a huge field of participants. Also racing at this event, track athlete Catriona Witcombe enjoyed an over distance run, completing the course in 90:15 to finish 14th senior woman.
Herne Hill women claimed a team win at the East Surrey League cross country race in Lloyd Park on Saturday afternoon.
They were led to victory by an individual victory for Nikki Sturzaker who was the first female, thereby also the winning W50 category.
Sturzaker returned to the park in Croydon on Sunday to claim another individual women’s win in the Switchback 5 race, crowning another busy weekend of racing for this exceptional 50-year-old.
Geoff Jerwood