The final hour of the weekend of the UKA Championships at the Alexander Stadium, Birmingham saw a historic three medal haul for Herne Hill Harriers.
First up was Kristal Ama-Awuah, who finished third in the women’s 200m in 22.99. This is a new Club Record and Kristal’s first time under the 23 second barrier. This was Kristal’s fifth race of the weekend having made the final of the 100 on day one, placing 8th in 11.46. This was Kristal’s first medal in the 200m, having previously claimed silver in the 100m in 2020.
Next was Arlo Ludewick who cannot stop winning races and continued his streak as he became the first Englishman to win the British 1500m title since 2020, and just the second across the last 10 editions. With just over 600m to go Arlo hit the front at full pace, a position he never surrendered for a sensational victory. Unsurprisingly, with a final 600m of 1:19 (1:45 800m pace), there weren’t many takers for these tactics. This was a brilliant execution of his race plan and a triumph for tactics over personal best times set in stage managed races. Huge congratulations to Arlo and his coach, Norman Poole.
In the next and final race of the meeting, Katie Snowden made a fantastic return to the podium, also in the 1500m. Always in contention in the final, Katie finished strongly running away from two athletes with faster season’s bests, just unable to catch the winner. This was Katie’s fourth medal at British Championships, having won in 2023 and placed third in 2020 and 2021; yesterday’s runner-up finish completes Katie’s full set of gold, silver and bronze medals. Katie is now in her 20th year of Harriers membership having joined age 12.
We also had a further six athletes competing this weekend – congratulations to Nevaeh Foster-Ricketts, Joyce Kalombo, Annabel Hobday, Sophie Tooley, Lucy Jones and Sam Bramwell, all enjoying representing the Club at the highest domestic level.
Elsewhere in road racing in Northern Ireland on Friday Katie Moore took the win in the Comber 10km in 36:07 with Jenny Nandi also on the podium with 37:24. Then on Sunday in the Belfast 10km Julia Wedmore was 12th in 40:55.