Herne Hill Harriers’ fine form this season showed little sign of abating as they continued to build on their progress picking up over 40 medals in the two-day Surrey Track and Field Championships last weekend.
Among the medal-winning performances, was Breagha Campbell, who set a new club record in the under-13 girls’ 1500m event with a time of 5.06.69 to win her first country track title. Breagha followed that up with a bronze medal in both the 800m and long jump the following day.
In one of the most exciting contests of the weekend, the Harriers clinched a 1-2-3 finish in a closely fought senior men’s race in the 400m event. The race was won by the Harriers’ British League athlete, Peter Phillips, in 49.37 to retain his county title by a mere couple of hundredths. Toby Adeyemi finished in second place with 49.39 and 400m debutant Nick Atwell in third with a time of 49.41.
After winning his race, Peter said:
“I felt good coming round the last bend before entering the home straight, but I knew I had a lot of work to do to get ahead of Toby and Nick who I train with regularly and know are strong finishers.”
He said:
“I could sense this would go down to the wire and I needed to keep pushing to stay in the mix. I’m glad it paid off and I’m pleased to record a good time at this point of the season and hope this will be sign of things to come.”
Elsewhere, Harrier’s international athlete, Katie Snowden, recorded a thrilling win over perennial rival at national level, Georgia Peel, in the U20 women’s 800m, followed by 2nd place in the 400m the next day.
Robert Graham won a competitive blue riband men’s 100m race with Idris Ojuriye snatching bronze after dropping out of the 200m final with cramp the day before.
The Harriers enjoyed another triple finish in the under 15 boys’ 100m race, courtesy of Zanson Plummer, Frederick Afrifa and Jermaine Graham, with Zanson and Frederick also recording a clinching silver and gold respectively in the 200m.
County titles also went to Vanessa La Fon in the under 17 women’s 100m, Charlotte Kanini-Parsons in the under 20 women’s javelin, Brandon Wallace in the under 13 boys’ 100m, Faysel Nadew in the under 13 boys’ 800m, Tshon Carnegie in the under 17 men’s 100m and Tayo Andrews in the under 17 men’s high jump.
Paul Oluyemi won the senior men’s long jump in the Dorset County Championships with a championship best performance of 7.52m.
In other news, the Harriers won the opening fixture of the Rosenheim League at Battersea Park on 11 May, capping off a perfect run of four team match wins in five days including the Southern Men’s League (division 2), National Young Athletes League and the Southern Veterans League. Last month, the Harriers also won the opening fixture of the Southern Women’s League (senior division 1).