It was a memorable weekend for the womens track & field team as they gained promotion in the UK Womens League and had a wonderful surprise.
Higher performance athlete Adelle Tracey was selected to be one of the seven young athletes who lit the Olympic flame in the Olympic Stadium on Friday evening, Adelle had been nominated by Dame Kelly Holmes as a reward for an outstanding season during which she has improved her PB to 2.03 for 800m and had told team manager Steve Bosley that she couldnt run on Saturday as she was busy on Friday and Saturday but he never imagined that would be the reason!
Herne Hill Harriers womens team clinched a second successive promotion in the UK Womens League by finishing second in the final match at Bedford. Going into the final match Herne Hill Harriers led by one point from Crawley and despite missing several winners from previous matches the team battled well to ensure they came second in the final League table winning promotion by seven points after finishing level with Crawley but losing out on match points.
National under 20 champion Aisha Naibe Wey got the team off to a good start in the first track event of the afternoon by winning the 400m hurdles in 63.6 and English schools bronze medalist Shanice Harrison won her 200m in 24.7. Laura Dowsing continued her improvement by winning the B string 800m in 2.18.2, while our 4 x 100m relay team of Rosanta Yarde, Michelle Watson, Rebecca Zelic and Shanice Harrison won the sprint relay in 48.9. But the secret of the team’s success was their excellent consistency all afternoon as athletes showed good club spirit by covering all the events and picking up points by coming third and fourth in events we thought we may struggle in. As an example Freya Cooper was third in the pole vault with 2.80m, fourth in the B string triple jump and also competed in the high jump, while Rebecca Zelic had a PB when third in the triple jump with 11.29 as well as coming fourth in the 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles.
Herne Hill Harriers now go into division one of the UK womens league next season which ranks them in the top sixteen womens track and field clubs in the country, only five years after entering this league.