Herne Hill Harriers World Championship finalist Katie Snowden has been selected to compete for Great Britain at the upcoming European Athletics Championships in Rome following two consecutive weekends when she clocked Olympic qualifying times in major races in the USA. The heats of the women’s 1500m will be a feature in the first session of the meeting on the morning of Friday 7th June, with the final taking place on the evening of Sunday 9th.
Snowden’s second race of the season while still in heavy preparation mode had seen her finish seventh in the women’s 1500m at the Nike Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon.
In a stacked world class field, she was behind fourth placed British record holder Laura Muir, but ahead of another rival for an Olympic berth, Georgia Bell, who finished eighth. Her time of 4:00.24 was a season’s best and sees her second in the current European rankings going into Rome behind only Muir, underlining potential medal prospects for the British team.
The high quality middle distance results keep coming as club women’s 5000m record holder Phoebe Anderson was fifth in her semifinal race at the NCAA East First Round meet.
Racing at Lexington in Kentucky, Anderson’s 15:35.80 continues her superb consistency this season as she has now run a handful of times that are faster than any other Harriers female has so far achieved on the track at this race distance. Finishing fifth ensured that she punched her ticket to the NCAA’s Finals in Eugene where she will hope for another breakthrough in her 5000m final on Saturday 8th June.
Another Herne Hill Harriers senior women’s record has fallen as the female athletes from the club continue to go from strength to strength.
This latest was the turn of Lucy Jones at the BMC Grand Prix meet at SportsCity next to the Etihad Stadium in Manchester on Saturday. Placing second in the women’s 3000m steeplechase in a time of 10:35.66. Running strongly throughout, Jones revised the previous mark set by Lily Newton last summer.
In road racing Andrew Warburton ran 31:46 to finish 42nd at the Great Manchester Run 10km. Further north at the Edinburgh Marathon Festival over the weekend Jenny Nandi was first female in the 10km in 38:04, a good time on a hilly course.
Then in the Edinburgh Marathon the following day Tom Foster ran 3:06.41, James Brown 3:07.11 and Annabelle Acres 3:26.00 as the club was well represented in one of the biggest Scottish road running events on the calendar.
Geoff Jerwood