Great Britain international Lewis Lloyd came within a whisker of breaking his 800m personal best at a track meeting in New York on Sunday. Lewis, racing for Achilles AC (Oxbridge), against Penn/Cornell University clocked 1:54.62 in finishing third, a shade slower than his 1:54:43 best set in 2011 when running in the red and black of Herne Hill Harriers.
Lloyd’s track performance comes just a fortnight after the Herne Hill man pulled on a GB vest for the first time in the U20 race at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, where he finished 77th.
Closer to home, there were four individual Herne Hill winners at the Hercules Wimbledon young athletes open meeting. Katie Snowden comfortably won the U20 women’s mile race at Crystal Palace with a positive front-running performance, clocking 5:01.45, while Alex Brown was victorious in the U13 girl’s 1500m race, posting 5:07.4. Feysel Nadew won the U15 boy’s 800m in 2:09.50 and Zanson Plummer secured victory in the U17 men’s 200m, running a season’s best 22.68.
Meanwhile, Hannah Edwards opened her track season with a good second place in the 800m, running 2:18, and a win in the 400m, clocking 61:6, at the Alpha Beta Trophy meeting at Lee Valley. A further 30 junior club athletes travelled to the LG Arena in Birmingham to compete at the National Sportshall Finals. Four athletes from Herne Hill Harriers won events: Denisha Marshall-Brown in the U13 girl’s shot, Ismail Abdul-Karim in the U15 boy’s two-lap race, Ade Adirean in the U13 boy’s two-lap race and Anthony Attahy in the U15 boy’s triple jump. Dejean Marshall-Brown was third in the U13 boy’s shot. The U15 boy’s team representing Surrey finished third overall.
On the road, Jonathan Ratcliffe was first V45 and sixth overall in the Blackpool Marathon, with a time of 2.50.45, while Mike Cummings continued his preparation for the track season at the Victoria Park Open 5, finishing 20th in 26.11. Keith Newton’s gradual return to form continued at the Dulwich parkrun, clocking 17.11 to finish fourth in a race that was won by Harriers’ Mohammed Ismail in 16.29. Gary Ironmonger was sixth at the Brockwell parkrun, running 18.10, two seconds short of his personal best.
Harriers’ one-hour track championship also took place last week, with Rupert Mainwaring claiming top spot. Mainwaring covered 13,720m in the allotted time, pushing Andrew Grigg (13,585m) and Waldy Pauzers (13,517m) into second and third positions respectively. Penel Cummings was the sole female entrant, running 12,232m.