Katie Snowden wins Active Wandsworth Sports Person of the Year award 

Herne Hill Harriers’ UK women’s 1500m champion Katie Snowden was crowned Active Wandsworth Sportsperson of the Year at the annual awards evening held on Friday at the Civic Suite in recognition of her stellar performances in the year 2023.

The event was hosted by Sky Sports presenter Emma Paton and was in appreciation of some very high quality winners and short listed nominees in a number of sporting and recreational categories. 

Among the many highlights of Snowden’s year was her victory in July at the UK Athletics Championship in Manchester where she beat British record holder Laura Muir to earn selection for the World Championship in Budapest in August. The global event saw her finish eighth in the 1500m final after having set a new English women’s record in the semifinals, her time of 3:56.72 ranking her tenth on the world female list for 2023.

Super veteran Nikki Sturzaker who topped the UK female over 50 rankings in a number of middle distance events and who set lifetime personal bests in 2023 was voted into Top third place behind Snowden. 

Harriers enjoyed further success with coach Andrew Black being one of the winners in the Volunteer of the Year award and Herne Hill’s community project Tooting Run Club being shortlisted for Club/Organisation of the Year. Teenage combined events athlete Jasmine Nkoso was shortlisted for Young Sportsperson of the Year and her coach Tony Mayhew for Coach of the Year.

In road racing on the other side of the world, Georgie Grgec continued her preparation for the World Cross Country Championship in Serbia later this month with a big win in her home city of Auckland, New Zealand. 

Grgec was the first female in the AKL Round the Bays Race, advertised as 8.4km. Her time of 26:55 was impressive as she placed seventh overall among more than 21,000 finishers and was more than 90 seconds ahead of the next woman to finish.

At the RunThrough Battersea 10km road race on Wednesday evening Mat Hudson’s time of 36:34 was a PB by around 20 minutes as the former sprinter now moves up a few race distances.

Also in Battersea Park on a very wet Saturday morning the Sri Chinmoy 10km saw a strong set of runs from Harriers. Andrew Clarke finished third in 32:17, just ahead of  Andrew Warburton fourth in 32:21, then Lewis Laylee was sixth in 32:56, Brandon Dewar eight in 33:02 and Max Rose 13th in 33:25

Sunday was half marathon day and featured more very good runs. In the Cambridge Half Marathon Ben Warren clocked 72:35 in 94th place and Scott Morrison ran a PB of 75:19.

In the Paddock Wood Half M45 Ben Millar was 47th overall in 73:52, M40 Paul Calver 82nd in 76:09, Chris Speed 83rd in 76:23 and M55 Jonathan Ratcliffe was sixth among the over 50s in 79:24.

Also at Paddock Wood, the leading females from the club both recorded PBs as Jenny Nandi was timed at 81:00 and Laura Donnelly 86:16.

Geoff Jerwood