Herne Hill Harriers’ Australian distance running star Brandon Dewar rounded off his summer racing with a purple patch as he produced three of the best races of his life in the space of eight days. In the middle of the same week the club’s Tokyo Olympian Katie Snowden also bounced back towards her very best form at the end of what has proved to be a very difficult season for her this year.
Having last week smashed his road 5km PB by 20 seconds with 14:33 at the Podium Home Nations event where his partner Georgie Grgec had won the elite women’s race, Dewar then placed a good third with 14:42.47 in the final race of the evening at the Tracksmith Twilight 5000m races at Parliament Hill on Wednesday.
Then on Sunday morning he finished off his season with thousands of other runners on the streets of London in the Big Half marathon which went from Tower Bridge to the Cutty Sark in Greenwich via a lap of Canary Wharf.
Here he placed an excellent fourth of all who toed the non elite start line, blocking 69:06, a time that held up as the 19th best among the enormous field, claiming some high quality scalps along the way.
Wednesday evening saw a very good season’s best for Surrey women’s 800m record holder Snowden in her final race over this distance of the summer. She placed third at a World Athletics meeting in Szczecin, Poland behind top athletes from the USA and Kenya. In doing so she recorded her second fastest ever 800m time of 1:58.75.
The Iron Curtain didn’t come down on her season here as she has two more races to come in Europe in early September as well as taking on the role of pacemaker for the women’s 5000m race at this week’s Diamond League meet in Zurich.
At the School Games National Final at Loughborough for Under 17 age group over the weekend Fred Hake won a bronze medal in the boys 400m in 49.73 seconds.
Ella Rennie finished fourth in the girls 200m with 25.19 and Maalik Adamson placed fifth in the boys long jump with 6.42m.
Back to the Big Half, there were more than thirty Herne Hill participants forming a huge turnout on a warm and humid day. In addition to Dewar’s exports, Grace Leyland came eighth of all non elite women and 14th female overall in 82:58, Muhamud Haile was third M50 in 80:31 and Karen Ellison was eighth W40 in 92:30.
Other leading results from the club included Max Rose 72:20, Ronan Tanguy 75:00, Ryan Willmott 78:45, Fintan Kearney 78:48, Alex Lee 80:09, Muhamud Haile 80:31, Jamie Brown 80:55, Pat Parrini 81:16, Thomas Mcquade 84:08, Calum Murphy 84:14, Craig Duncan 85:02, Charlotte Davies 86:04, David Gunns 89:25, Laura Donnelly 89:31, Helena Keenan 89:51, Alex Gutteridge 89:51 and Annie Dalton 90:33.
Also on Sunday at the Garstang Half Marathon in Lancashire Jonathan Ratcliffe finished seventh overall and second M50 with 89:48.
Last Wednesday as well as Snowden racing in Poland there were a number of Harriers at Parliament Hill in addition to Dewar’s fine run in the final race of the evening.
In order of appearance the others from the club were were Kaitlin Hewitt 19:13.63, Mat Hudson 17:16.33 (PB), Jenny Nandi 18:01.23, Eric Dol 16:53.21, Sophie Tooley 17:48.87, Bryn Reynolds 16:42.52, John Brierly 17:56.87, Alex Lee 16:07.77 (PB) and Henry Stanley 16:30.92.
Geoff Jerwood