On a weekend when the National Cross Country Championships were postponed, the most prominent domestic performance from a Herne Hill Harriers athlete was seen at the Wokingham Half Marathon on Sunday morning.
Although his first ever race was only just over a year ago, 26 year old Morgan Roberts has already made a few waves in road racing. His latest top club level result was to finish sixth in a good Wokingham field with a PB time of 67:39. This revised his previous fastest for the distance by 86 seconds as his progress continues unabated.
Other PB runs at this event came from James Nutt 24th in 70:54, Oliver Walker 32nd in 71:27 and Leonie Biemolt, 21st female overall and seventh W40 with her time of 82:05.
More big half marathon PBs were set by Harriers athletes at the Brighton Half Marathon. Jack Dickenson ran 78:41, Jamie Brown 81:09, while Grace Leyland was sixth female in 81:14 and Jenny Nandi seventh female 81:49.
In the USA Phoebe Anderson continued her purple patch on the collegiate indoor track circuit. Anderson strode imperiously to victory at the Ivy League Championship in the women’s 5000m. Although there was no club record this weekend, her winning time of 15:41.31 at Princeton was a championship record.
Back locally, the London Winter Run 10km saw good runs from Ryan Willmott 33:28, M50 Ben Paviour 33:33, U20 Alex Jack 33:44 and Tom Irish 35:56. Rowen Hughes eighth female overall in a field of thousands with 36:45, followed by Jack Morris 38:32, U15 Sophie Jack 38:36, Charlotte Davies 38:55, Matthew Bright 39:04, Holly Govey 39:05, Milli Simcock-Brown 40:13, Hannah Edwards 41:26 and M45 Ian Jack 41:48.
At the Masters indoor Inter area challenge at Lee Valley, Simon Coombes won the 1500m in 4.19, was second in the 800m in 2.12 and then rounded of his day with a leg in the relay. Good preparation for the European Masters Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland next month.
With the National Cross Country Championships being postponed due to flooding in the Midlands, a big group of young athletes from the club who had made the journey found a local parkrun where they dominated proceedings. The first four finishers at the Cannock Chase parkrun were all Harriers, as Fabien Whitelock 17:11, Caspian Holmes 17:27, Sam Maloney 17:30, Leau Roch 17:49 scored a 1-3-3-4. Not their plan A for the weekend, but making the best of their trip.
Geoff Jerwood