Henderson claims Harriers 10 Miles Cross Country Shield

The Herne Hill Harriers annual 10 Miles Cross Country Championship winner claims the huge and very prestigious Dewar Shield, awarded to the first club member to finish in the Gordon Pirie 10 race organized by South London Harriers on Farthing Down, Coulsdon.

Last year’s holder Richard Henderson successfully defended his title as he placed a good fourth overall in a strong race and was the first man in red and black to complete the challenging, muddy and undulating course on Sunday.

Other Harriers in the race were Alan Barnes (8th and 3rd M40), Jonathan Ratcliffe (13th and 1st M50), Dan Hallam (15th and 5th M40), John Foxall (20th), Patrik Ewe (25th) and James Ward (26th and 7th M40), with Samantha Whiting among the top 10 women.

Meanwhile the Herne Hill young athletess consolidated their good start to the winter with some very good performances at the second Downs League cross country race at Epsom, with the club providing five individual race winners on the day.

Freddie Hake (U11 boys) Sophia Sahai (U11 girls) Christo Chilton (U13 boys) Tamra Chan (u13 girls) and Jacob Harrison all won their races. The strength of the Harriers club teams was highlighted by a 1-2-3 in the U15 boys’ race through Jacob Harrison, Harvey Kande, having his best race of the winter, and Ben Harrison.

There was also good support from Sidney Reed, third in the U11 boys’ race, Anna Forster second in the U11 girls’ race, and Joe Russian and Fabien Whitelock 4th & 5th in the U13 boys’ race.

These performances rounded off a super weekend for young athletes coach James McDonald who became a grandad on Saturday when his daughter gave birth to a baby girl.

Others who found some cross country action were Fiona de Mauny finishing in 13th place in the Sussex League at Stanmer Park, Brighton and Simon Coombes, who was 27th in the Chiltern League event in Luton, while in road racing at the Self Transcendence 10K in Battersea Park on Saturday Andrew Grigg ran a good PB of 33.48 in sixth place. Grigg finished ahead of Matt Robertson who was eighth in 34.27, Bryn Reynolds in 19th in 36.00 and Eric Dol 33rd in 37.33. Stacy Wheat was fourth woman in 39.22, Olivia Zeltner was eighth in a PB 41.11 and Monika Gajek tenth in 42.14. Damien Wilson clocked 42.49 and Zoe Buckland 47.52 as both ran PBs.

Racing indoors at the London Universities & Colleges LUCA Championships Constantinos Timinis returned to racing after illness to place second over 3000m in 9.06.65. In the same race Jack Dickenson ran a good PB of 9.31.13 before later finishing fractionally outside his 1500m PB in 4.21.18.

Geoff Jerwood