Herne Hill Harriers news – April 11-12

Stacey at Sutton Park

Herne Hill Harriers’ senior women’s team placed 15th out of 41 teams at the National Road Relay on Saturday.

Stacey Ward ran a blistering first leg at Sutton Coldfield, finishing in fifth (and clocking the eighth fastest long leg of the day), before passing on to Julia Wedmore who kept Harriers in the top-10. Katie Snowden ran the day’s eighth-fastest short leg to improve the squad’s position by one. Subsequent legs by Steph Mitchell, Helen Hadjam and Natasha Lodge ensured Herne Hill would ultimately finish 15th.

Herne Hill were unable to field a men’s team but Simon Coombes flew the flag for the club by running the notoriously-competitive first leg, finishing 45th out of 67 runners.

Notable 1500m times at the Hercules Wimbledon-hosted young athletes meeting included Turkay Korkmaz (four minutes, 21 seconds), Mohamed Mohamud (4.22), Oscar Millard (4.38), Alex Brown (4.45), Jaden Kennedy (4.46), Lucy Olsen (4.47), Lulu King (5.05) and Maisie Collis (5.09). Maisie’s time elevated her to number one on the U13G rankings for 1500m in 2015. Maddie Shaw won her age-category 800m race and Breagha Campbell was a winner in the high jump. Hannah Edwards was a double winner in the 400m and 800m at the Alpha Beta Trophy at Lee Valley.

Closer to home, Ross Macdonald was second at the Putney and Fulham Half Marathon, clocking 1.15.11. Simon Thompson was 12th at the Hillingdon Half Marathon in 1.21.27. Racing at the Rotterdam Marathon, Jeff Cunningham was 164th in 2.43.44 and Simon Messenger 339rd in a personal best 2.53.49.

Elsewhere, Mike Cummings ran a course record at the Peckham Rye parkrun, finishing in 15.50. Mohammed Ismail was another winner at Dulwich parkrun, clocking 16.07. Jonny Muir was seventh in 16.55 and Andrew Grigg 11th in a personal best 17.20. Natalie Zara also ran a personal best with 19.49, finishing fifth woman and breaching 20 minutes for the first time.

Sixteen-year-old Reiss Senior claimed an age-category club record in the hammer after throwing 45.02m in the U17M competition at the Medway open. Senior had previously thrown 39.74m at the Herne Hill open meeting a week earlier. Another junior athlete – 14-year-old Ella Newton – ran 10.24 in a midweek 3000m, which is the second fastest time by a club under-17 girl and just two seconds shy of the English Schools qualifying time. Newton then ran a marginal personal best of 4.58 for 1500m at Wimbledon three days later.

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