Herne Hill Harriers senior and under 20 athletes were competing at the South of England Championship at Lee Valley and brought home two silver medals and three bronze, with eight others from the club achieving top eight positions in their events.
Second placers were England international thrower Gavin Johnson-Assoon in the senior men’s javelin, with 65.63m and up and coming middle distance runner Billy Black in the under 20 men’s 800m, whose time of 1:54.92 was only just outside his recent PB. Bronze medals were won by Stacey Ward in the senior women’s 3000m in 9:55.90, Michella Obijaiku in the under 20 women’s shot with 13.08m and Peter Phillips in the senior men’s 400m clocking season’s best times in heat, semi-final and final with 48.03 in the final.
Only a fraction behind Phillips and just missing a medal in fourth, was Samuel Adeyemi with a PB of 48.09, while in the senior men’s 110m hurdles Rushane Thomas missed a podium place by only one hundredth of a second, also placing fourth in 14.64. Hannah Edwards was also fourth in the senior women’s 800m, running 2:12.28, with team mate Steph Mitchell placing a good sixth in her first final at this level in a season’s best 2:16.54. Other sixth placers were Jade Phillips in the senior women’s 200m in 26.02 and Eric Sapac in the men’s 800m in 1:54.10. Allandre Johnson was seventh in the men’s javelin throwing 56.76m and Michelle Watson eighth in the women’s 200m in 26.76.
At the London Schools Championship at Battersea Park on Saturday there were a multitude of very strong performances from Harriers athletes, culminating in the selection of 18 youngsters from the club for the London Schools team of 60 to compete at next month’s English Schools Championship.
Among those selected were Ella Newton, who improved her PB and Harriers club under 17 women’s record to finish 3rd in the Kent Schools Champs 1500m steeplechase running as a guest, clocking 5.19.34, well inside the English Schools qualifying time of 5:25 and earns a well deserved place in the team.
There were three championship best performances at Battersea Park: Ore Adamson in the junior girls long jump, leaping 5.55m, Danielle Henderson throwing 38.15m in the junior girls javelin and Alex Brown in the intermediate girls 1500m 4:38.35. Alfred Mawdsley set a new PB of 44.54m in the inter boys discus at the Herts schools championships to also earn his place in the English Schools championships.