Herne Hill Harriers make history at English Road Relay Championships

Herne Hill Harriers’ senior women became national champions, for the first time in their long history, at the English Road Relay Championships at Sutton Coldfield on Saturday 5th October.

Star athlete Georgie Grgec actually claimed two golds as she was also the fastest individual in the women’s relay.

The winning women’s quartet began with Darcie Hey handing over in 20th and Gaby Reynolds moving up to 11th at the end of the first two legs. They clocked 14:41 and 15:19 for the hilly 4.33km circuit.

Hey demonstrated how valuable a recent addition to the ranks she is and W40 Reynolds showed remarkable form only six months after her third baby was born.

They set up New Zealand international Grgec for a third leg run that was nothing short of sensational.

From 11th place she moved past all ahead of her and recorded easily the fastest individual women’s time of 13:39, more than half a minute faster than the next best on the day.

She comfortably overtook the recently crowned national cross country champion in a time which ranks third on the all-time list for this event behind no less an athlete than retired former marathon star Paula Radcliffe.

Grgec handed over to Lucy Jones with a lead which she held on to without problem.

Jones kept her head superbly, ensuring that a clear and safe gap was maintained and was delighted to break the tape with a very good solo time of 14:33.

With a winning margin of 24 seconds and the overall team time in the top five around this course history, this was certainly a very worthy win to celebrate.

Harriers also fielded a good quality women’s B team. Grace Leyland (34th in 15:25), Lily Newton (26th, 15:38), Sarah Grover (22nd, 15:45) and Sophie Tooley (19th, 15:19) could all be in an A team on most other days and they put in strong performances for a top 20 finish among a total of 62 complete teams.

The young athletes had earlier set the standard with silver medals in the Under 15 boys race and a good 11th place for the Under 17 women who are all in their first year in this age group. Great achievements for these athletes and coaches James McDonald and Steve Knight. 

The U15B silver medals were won by Caspian Holmes ninth on the opening leg around a slightly shorter lap than the women raced. Tommy Clerkin was second on the next stage and then Leau Roch successfully completed the challenge for national team medals.

Roch actually crossed the line in third place, but the team who had overtaken him were subsequently disqualified for having been paced around sections of the course by non participants from their club, deemed to be outside assistance that is contrary to the race rules. So the Herne Hill boys were eventually awarded the silver medals after appeals and counter appeals.

The Herne Hill U15B B team also won excelled in the top 10 in a superb ninth place, courtesy of Edward Cunniffe (24th), Zachary Morris (15th) and Luca Boulton (9th) were first of all B teams to finish.

In the U17W race Sophie Jack was 20th, then Orla Wright moved up to 11th and Maeve Minielly held this position to secure an excellent 11th place finish. An U15G team of Florence Mills 43rd, then Sofia Mendes 27th and Zoe Dodgson maintaining 27th to the end. 

The Herne Hill men raced superbly to place 26th nationally in what is always one of the most fiercely contested club team events on the calendar. Their race was a six man relay around a 5.8km lap with 67 complete teams finishing.

Andrew Warburton (46th, 18:34), Lewis Laylee (40th, 18:13), Daniel Shaw (35th, 18:31), Brandon Dewar (26th 18:01), Tom O’Mahoney (29th, 18:59) and Ollie Mills (26th, 18:27) all combined for an overall showing that compares very favourably with their 22nd in the Southern road relay championships at Aldershot last month. 

In other road races on Sunday Morgan Roberts (67:38) and Sam Brashaw (75:58) ran PB times at the Cardiff Half Marathon, while in the Dulwich Park Runners 5 miles road race U20 Charlie Wood was third, clocking a good 28:01. 

With cross country also now under way the Herne Hill M40 team placed a close fourth in a new event, the Surrey Relay Championship which was held in Nonsuch Park on Saturday. The team comprised Ben Millar, Paul Calver, Pip Bennett and Mike Tay.

Geoff Jerwood

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