Herne Hill Harriers had a busy Easter weekend with athletics in action over the road and in early season track & field meetings. The club brought their winter season to a close by completing a clean sweep of wins in the East Surrey League at Ewell on Thursday 5th April winning both the under 15/17 & the under 13 agegroups. Paul Burgess won the under 13 boys race to clinch the individual League title followed by Sam Wattles and Sam Cohen to secure a third match win for the under 13s who retained their league title for the third year in succession.
On Easter Saturday the clubs womens and girls team travelled to the traditional opening match of the season, the Alpha Beta meeting at Pickets Lock. In cold, blustery conditions the team was weakened by the Easter holidays but rallied well in the second half of the afternoon for the seniors top finish third and the under 15 girls finishing second to ensure the club finished third in the match overall. There were individual wins from Rebecca Zelic in the 100m hurdles, Hannah Edwards & Michelle Watson in the 400m and team captain Briony Phillips in the shot and discus whilst the under 15 girls team of Francesca Reid Lloyd, Alice Setyabule, Tiqilla Smith and Izzy Lamport-Went all set PBS in helping the girls team come second.
The previous weekend several senior men competed over 400m at Havering in an early season warm up open meeting recording very promising times despite the cold conditions. Laurence Mensah ran 48.6, faster than his best last summer, Southern indoor silver medalist Peter Phillips 48.9 & Nicholas Attwell 50.1.