At the Annual Surrey County Athletics Association Awards on Friday evening there were four Herne Hill Harriers Award Winners for the best overall performances from the 2016 championships at Kingsmeadow Stadium. To win this you would have to have posted an outstanding performance, usually a Championship Best Performance. Maisie Collis won the Under 13 Girls Category with a Championship Best in the 1500m of 4:52.7.Similarly Jaden Kennedy was the second of James McDonald’s squad to win an award, this time the Under 13 Boys award again for a Championships Best Performance in the 1500m posting a time of 4:34.50. In the Under 20 Women’s category Harriers athlete Michaela Obijiaku who is currently attending University in the USA, won with a CBP in the Shot Putt of 13:59m and finally Rushane Thomas in the Senior Men category with a 110m Hurdles CBP of 14.36. Very Well done to them all.
The following day Herne Hill hosted the first of four open track and field meetings at Tooting Bec this season with what became a feature race, the 5000m which with some collaboration between two or three London clubs and coaches became a quality event, as twenty-three of the twenty-four runners in the A race clocked times of under 16 minutes 15 seconds. First Harriers’ man across the line was Jeff Cunningham, who added the club 5000m championship title to the one hour track champs he had claimed three days earlier with a time of 15.53.64, Cunningham was followed home by Alex Hobley and John Tayleur, whose 16.03.16 and 16.08.43 clockings were both PBs.
Eric Sapac comfortably won the 1500m in a PB 4.08.53 and Under 20 Ella Newton took five seconds from her PB as her 4.41.51 yielded her an early English Schools Champioship qualifying time. Another Under 20 Laurie Pope won his first ever track 5000m in crossing the line first in the race in 17.15.21. Now in the Under 15 Boys age group, Jaden Kennedy raced the seniors over 1500m and recorded a time of 4.24.45 in his first outdoor track race of the year. Another Under 15 Jacob Harrison ran 4.43.37 for 1500m, just ahead of his Under 13 club mate Christo Chilton who was timed at 4.44.04. Under 15 Girl Poppy Craig-McFeely ran a good sub 5 min 1500m with 4.58.44.
Herne Hill Harriers are the only South West London based club in the men’s British League and as National League status in also enjoyed by the women’s squad Harriers can claim to be the best senior track and field team in the area. Field events are an important part of this continued success and Saturday’s results helped to illustrate why this may be the case. UK top ranked Under 17 women’s long jumper Ore Adamson won her event with a leap of 5.68m, while Reiss Senior got his season off to a great start with his Under 20 men’s hammer win, throwing 54.28m. Also in the hammer, Hazel Robertson and Charlotte Nicholls scored a 1-2 in the women’s event with marks of 36.64m and 32.37m respectively. Jen’ae James won the Under 15 girls shot with 10.73m, Britli Francis the Under 17 women’s shot with 11.91m. Back with the long jump, new Herne Hill member Sebastian Wilson Dyer Gough won the senior men’s competition with 7.10m, Jevonni McFarlane the Under 20 men with 6.62m and Clayton Mytil the Under 13 boy’s long jump with 4.38m.
Harriers’ sprinters were also in top early form. England international 400m man Nicholas Atwell won the men’s 100m, 200m and 300m with fine times of 10.93, 21.87 and 34,76, followed close behind in all three races by club mate Peter Phillips, who clocked 11.09, 22.11 and 35.08 for what was a good day’s work for both athletes in their preparation for the season ahead. Herne Hill’s only hurdler on show was Mallory Cluley, who won the Under 17 women’s 80m hurdles race in 12.34 seconds.
In road races, Bryn Reynolds picked up his first race win as a first claim Herne Hill Harrier at the Sri Chinmoy Battersea Park 10k in 33.31 on Saturday before running the Paddock Wood Half Marathon a day later. At Paddock Wood Sean Fitzpatrick ran a big PB time of 72.15 to place thirteenth in a strong field followed by Reynolds’ 74.45, Jonathan Ratcliffe 78.14 and Oliver Morrison 81.08 for a good team turnout.