In the European 10000m Cup meet on Saturday 23rd May in the Italian town of La Spezia, Herne Hill Harriers’ Lucy Jones made a red-hot Great Britain international debut which had a sting in the tail (or should that be tale?).
On the start line with temperatures of 27 degrees and “feels like” 29, our club women’s marathon and 3000m steeplechase record holder executed her plan perfectly for 23 laps. So far, so good, but then due to very unclear info from the lap count officials, confusion with the lead pack merging with the group she was running in and being fully “in the zone”. Lucy absolutely flew round her penultimate lap thinking she was finishing when she still had another lap to run!
She then had to battle round much more of a lap of horror than of honour to complete the full 10km distance, but she did so admirably and was a credit to her team, her club and her country with such a brave, if unfortunate showing. Her error notwithstanding, her final result was still one of the fastest 10000m track times ever run by a HHH female member.
This was a Team GB debut with a difference and a steep learning curve but she nevertheless fully enjoyed an invaluable experience throughout what was an excellent absolute weekend overall.
Making the GB team is the biggest result. A really good performance is always a bonus. There will be more GB vests. Lucy She now has the taste for it and she now knows for sure she is good enough to be on this sort of stage. Team GB kit looks great on Lucy and we at Herne Hill fervently hope she will be wearing it again before too long.
At the previous Friday’s Comeback 5000m track races in Battersea Park, Molly Smith was the star turn, running a superb PB to grab a deserved podium spot in the elite women’s A race placing a clear 3rd in 16.07.86.
HHH men produced strong runs with Morgan Roberts clocking 14.40, Harry Bell 14.45, Lewis Laylee 14.47, Rowan Board 14:51 and Tom Patterson 15:21.
On the same day as Lucy’s international race, the first National Athletics League match of the season was the scene of one of our best club team results in recent years as we placed a clear 3rd of the 6 teams in a league where we’ve been more used to 5th or 6th place. This was a team performance where a number of U18s and U20s came of age in senior league competition.
Among middle-distance results Sophie Tooley impressed win a planned front run win in her A string race in a fine early season 2:08.33, dragging the next 3 women in her wake to PBs. Sophie clocked the fastest 800m across all 5 of the NAL divisions on Saturday including the Premiership. This time was also not subsequently bettered in the next round of fixtures in July.
HHH also had good event wins from our group courtesy of Daniel Shaw taking the A 1500m with a rapid 55 sec final 400m in a tactical race and maximum points in the women’s 5000m where Margaret Coogan in a very welcome NAL debut and Julia Wedmore coped superbly with the heat to win the A and B respectively. Jeff Cunningham also made light of the high temperature to win the men’s B 5000m with U18 James Clements-Nash placing a good 2nd in the A string.
Other middle-distance events saw a U18 duo of Caspian Holmes and Leau Roch finish 2nd and 3rd respectively in their A and B 800m, Ryan Hickey 3rd in the men’s B 1500m, Soraya Lockwood and HCA Katy Simpson scoring good points in the women’s A and B 1500s with 2nd and 3rd. Katy had kicked off her afternoon with that well known double of steeple and triple jump, placing 2nd in the chase and in her jump event.
Geoff Jerwood