Herne Hill Harriers multi-eventers lit up the Surrey championships with decathlete Thomas Ashby and pentathlete Jess Collins striking gold. The Tooting Bec-based club were also relay winners in the U13G 4 x 100m and 4 x 200m events, the U13B 4 x 100m and 4 x 200m, and the U17M 4 x 100m, at the county combined events, relays and steeplechases championships at Carshalton over the weekend. John Tayleur added to the medal haul by winning the U20M 2000m steeplechase crown.
Collins – competing in the U13G category – notched a championship best and club record. On her way to the record total, Collins earned personal bests in the 800m and long jump, and equalled her high jump best. Ashby, meanwhile, leapt to a new best of 7.11m in the long jump, as part of his dominant victory.
Herne Hill athletes were also on form at the Will Bolton relays, winning the U13B, U13G and U15G titles, and clocking leading times at the meeting. Lily Newton claimed the quickest individual U13G over the 3km course at West Wickham, while Oscar Millard was the fastest U13B.
Oscar’s sister, Saskia, was comfortably the fastest of the U15G category. A senior men’s team finished 22nd and a senior women’s quartet 48th. Oscar Millard’s run came days after he ran a season’s best of 2.14.2 over 800m at a Watford open graded meeting, a personal best that elevated him to seventh on the U13B UK rankings for the event.
Further afield, Ross Macdonald was competing in the Kronberg 70.3 Ironman event where he finished tenth in his 25-29 age category and 30th overall. Macdonald had hoped for a podium position, but was undone by a puncture at around 60km on the bike leg.
Jonny Muir
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