Just seven days after her younger club mate Alex Brown had raced in Scotland for England Schools for the first time, Herne Hill Harriers had another international debutante. Stacey Ward raced for an England senior women’s team on Easter Saturday in Cardiff in a home countries international half marathon race held in conjunction with the World Half Marathon Championship and a mass race for thousands of club and charity participants.
Ward made a strong first appearance for her country as she placed third of all women who were not in the World Championship event and also ran faster than a number of these as she was first finisher for the England team. Her time of 77:13 was commendable given the atrocious weather conditions which were almost biblical in the final three miles and despite her being pushed out of the way by the eventual winner of the men’s World race as he charged past her after he had fallen at the start
In the mass race at Cardiff Simon Coombes was first HHH runner with a 75:54, while Simon Messenger broke the 80 minute barrier with a 79:49 PB. At the Regents Park 10k Jack Brotchie put the finishing touches on his marathon preparations with a 36:36 in windy conditions which was preceded by a win at the Tooting Common Parkrun in 17:21 where Sue Swaine ran a 20:06 PB.
At home in London, Tooting Bec welcomed its first competition of the summer on Easter Saturday and despite inclement weather conditions there were some excellent performances in this warm up meeting with some high quality throwers including English Schools champions Sam and Sophie Mace of Walton AC amongst the competitors which attracted athletes from Brighton to Basildon.
In the opening hammer held in steady drizzle Reiss Senior warmed up for the summer with an opening PB of 51.23m In the shot Michael Wheeler showed good early season form with a putt of 15.02m. In the younger age groups Rayan Moumneh who has shown massive improvement this winter achieved an English Schools qualifying distance with 13.57m, Dejean Marshall Brown threw 11.71m and Denisha Marshall Brown threw 12.37m in the U17 women’s age group with Breagha Campbell throwing 9.27m and Kathleen Moeller 6.68m.
Thomas Ashby showed a welcome return to fitness in the discus with a season opening 44.90m and in the younger age groups Dejean threw 34.58m and Denisha 32.94m. In the throwing pentathlon Barbara Macanas warmed up for the European indoor vets champs with throws of hammer 22.87m 8.81m in the weight, 12.41m in the javelin, 5.98m shot and 17.13m discus In the worst of the conditions Alex Tischler threw the javelin 36.86m in his first competition in the U17 men’s category.