Herne Hill Harriers’ juniors Lucy Olsen and Lulu King raced to top-10 finishes at the Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships on Saturday, while Stacey Ward was 22nd in the senior women’s race.
Olsen and King were both tenth in the U15G and U13G races respectively at Birmingham. As well as Ward, Herne Hill was represented by Chris Busaileh, who was 65th, Simon Coombes 153rd and Jeff Cunningham 199th in the senior men’s race.
Elsewhere, John Kettle claimed a national title at the Sidcup 10 – which incorporated the British Masters Athletic Federation (BMAF) 10-mile championships – in clocking 54 minutes, 55 seconds, to win the M35 category. Mel Edwards placed fifth in the women’s race in 63.43.
Further British veterans’ medals were won by Herne Hill athletes at the BMAF indoor track championships, as Gary Ironmonger won silver in the M50 800m with 2:13.2, which was comfortably inside his previous indoor best and narrowly outside his lifetime best. Steve Knight won silver in the M65 800m in 2:44.42 and Rebecca Barrow clinched bronze in the W40 800m. Mary Setyabule finished fourth in the W45 800m in 2:45.60.
Harriers’ athletes preparing for the London Marathon were also competing in various half-marathons. Sean Fitzpatrick was the pick of the bunch, running 78.40 in The Hague. Andrew Grigg and Louis Waterman-Evans clocked near-identical times of 79.20 and 79.21 at the Surrey half-marathon, where Damien Wilson ran 94.57.
Mohammed Ismail clocked 78.35 at the Roding Valley half-marathon, while racing in Paris, Simon Messenger ran 81 minutes to knock a further two minutes off his best. Kelvin Barber was another to record a personal best, clocking 84.52 at Milton Keynes.