Kingsmeadow Athletics Centre was the warm and sometimes very breezy scene of a busy weekend of competition at the Surrey County Track and Field Championships where the highlights included some sprinting as hot as the weather.
A number of championship best performances (CBPs) were recorded and these included three from young athletes of Herne Hill Harriers in sprint events among the huge medal haul for the club, which totalled more than 30 over the course of two days of exciting action.
Ella Rennie clocked her first wind legal 100m time of under 12 seconds when placing second in her under 17 women’s 100m semifinal in 11.85, before claiming a bronze medal in the final with a wind assisted 11.80 on Saturday. This was, however a prelude to her main event on Sunday where she brought home the gold medal in the 200m with another PB and a CBP of 24.03. Tantalisingly close to sub 24, but this will surely come as the season is very young.
Rikaion Smith produced a couple of scorching runs in the U20 men’s 100m on Saturday as he twice broke the old CBP. First his semifinal win in a legal 10.48, which also set a new Herne Hill club record for his age group, eclipsing one of the oldest remaining marks of 10.5, set way back in 1947! Smith then ran even faster in his final to win in 11.39, but this time the following wind of +3.1 m/s was over the limit for record purposes. He then returned on Sunday to claim the 200m title in an impressive PB of 21.52, albeit the wind of -2.3 m/s was also just over the allowable limit. His 21.86 winning time of 21.86 was, however his first legal sub 22.
More excellent CBPs came on Saturday from one of the youngest competitors as Cymphonique Barrett is still a week away from her 12th birthday. Her winning times of 12.76 and 12.68 in the U13 girls 100m heat and final respectively are therefore all the more remarkable. Such performances fuel great anticipation as to what she might achieve during the rest of this summer and then hopefully in years to follow. She was also a clear winner of the 200m on Sunday with another superb time of 26.82 after an even more rapid 26.66 in winning her heat.
England Schools combined events international Jasmine Nkoso picked up two gold and two silver medals from her four U17 women’s events on a very busy Saturday. She took the win in the shot with 13.56m and the javelin with 37.59m and also placed a very close second behind the winners in both the long jump with 5.20m and the high jump with 1.55m.
Felix Poynter was another double gold medallist claiming first place results in the U13 boys high jump with 1.35m and shot with 8.35m. The U15 girls long jump saw a Harriers 1-2-3 with only 10cm separating first from third. Sasha Nolan won the gold with 5.07m, Jessica Bent the silver with 4.98m and Allisa Jones-Ayreh the bronze with 4.97m.
Maalik Adamson soared to a win in the U20 men’s long jump with 6.98m and now knows his first performance above 7 metres must soon be achievable. Keeran Sriskandarajah took a strong and assured victory in the U20 men’s 800m with 1:54.53, while young Skyla O’Brien was a clear gold medallist in the U13 girls 1500m with 4:55.23.
Luca Boulton claimed the U15 boys 1500m title with 4:27.54 and Joshua Nkongolo the U17 men’s hammer with 45.44m as part of a very strong gold medal count over another very successful weekend.
Flying the red and black flag in road racing on Sunday morning Oliver Mills was the winner of the Ranelagh Half Marathon in Richmond with a course record of 71:24 and in the Bristol 10km Morgan Roberts placed a good second with 30:50.
Geoff Jerwood