Herne Hill Harriers young athletes claimed an impressive haul of County medals at the Surrey Combined Events, Relays, Steeplechase and Walks at Sutton Arena over the weekend.
Saturday saw four wins from four relays for the U13 and U15 girls teams, effectively a clean sweep of gold medals.
The U15 girls team of Lucy Wright, Orla Carroll, India Blakey and Lily Rose Brown set new 4 x 300m club record with 2.53.85 which is also a championship best performance. This time ranks them third in the UK this year. The U15 girls team of Ella Rennie, Brown Wright and Kelsea Martin set the eighth fastest time in the country this year with their 4 x 100m win in 50.09.
The U13 girls won the 4 x 100m with 53.67, thanks to Jasmine Nkoso, Niamh Noble, Pyale Wifa and Alessia Manna. Their time is the in seventh fastest time in the UK. The fourth relay gold of the day came from U13s Nkoso, Manna, Seriah Watson and Sophie Wright in the 4 x 200m in 1.53.93.
Herne Hill took home one more set of relay team golds on Sunday, This came in the U20 women’s 4 x 100m relay, courtesy of Maleeka Royal-Howell, Saskia King, Jaydene Robinson and Niyah Costley. Their time of 47.90 on Sunday was only a fraction of a second outside the Harriers club record for this age group of 47.88, set by the same quartet when they raced in the Birmingham Commonwealth Games stadium as a prelude to a Diamond League meet earlier this summer.
Although claiming silver medals behind a team from Hercules Wimbledon, the U15 boys team set a 4 x 300m relay club record for their age group. The team of Alex Wilson, Warren Wilson Jon Goldston and Fred Hake clocked a good 2.35.90 despite an inefficient baton handover between two of the runners. Herne Hill teams won a number of medals in the sprint and 4 x 200m/300m/400m relays, including the senior men’s 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m teams.
Individually, Keeran Sriskandarajah won the U17 boys Octathlon to further demonstrate his all round athletic ability beyond being a highly ranked middle distance runner in the country in his age group. Sriskandarajah recorded a PB points score over the eight events of 4,314.
Brown and Nkoso both added third medals to their collections as the former was second in the U15 girls Pentathlon and Nkoso won a bronze in the U13 girls Pentathlon. Brown scored 2,618 points for her five events, with Nkoso scoring 2,150.
In the U17 women’s 1500m steeplechase Izzy Perry won a silver medal with 5:47.90 and Rosalie Laban a bronze with 6:11.46.
Herne Hill were well represented at the Vitality London Big Half event on Sunday morning, with 26 athletes running the half marathon distance from Tower Bridge to Greenwich in under two hours.
Fastest runner in the Harriers red and black was Carl Delaney, placing 75th of the non-elite start men in 73:14, with Angus Butler close behind in 88th with 73:33. Ryan Wilmott was third Herne Hill man in 114th with 74:42.
The first three Herne Hill women all ran very good PBs. Julia Wedmore added the half marathon distance to the string of recent PBs she has recorded at 1500m, 3000m, 5000m and road 5km and 10km. She placed an excellent 29th of the non-elite women (and only eight of those were faster) in the huge field of runners with her time of 84:24. Behind her were St George’s medical students Jenny Nandi in 75th 88:35 and Grace Leyland 86th in 89:37.
The full roll of honour of the the 26 sub two hours athletes in fastest time order reads: Carl Delaney 73:14, Angus Butter 73:33, Ryan Willmott 74:42, Ben Millar 77:13, Robin Jones 77:54, Joffah Ratcliffe 79.30, Paul Calver 79:47, Andrew Dumbrell 81:31, Julia Wedmore 84:24, Pedro Henrique Pinto 84:42, James Brown 84:45, Jack Brotchie 85:40, Ross Brown 85:41, Tom Roberts 86:13, David Phillips 88:17, Jenny Nandi 88:35, Grace Leyland 89:37, Robert Nagorski 91:16, Hayley Shearman 96:07, Simon Evans 98:42, Robert Harrison 1:44.19, Honor Mewis 1:48.13, Ron Obodai 1:48.27, Bernard Muscat 1:48:52, Rosie Crampin 1:52.14, Suzanne Swaine 1:52.42.
Great efforts from everyone.
Geoff Jerwood