Two two risings stars of 1500m running within Herne Hill Harriers emerged over the weekend as Under 23 athlete Arlo Ludewick and Under 13 Caspian Holmes climbed up their UK age group rankings with strong performances on Saturday.
Ludewick raced in Manchester where he currently studies and he more than justified his place in the British Milers Club Grand Prix men’s 1500m A race at SportCity finishing ninth of 16 runners. He was ahead of some athletes with faster PB’s, setting a new lifetime best of his own with a superb 3:43.12. This time elevates him to tenth among UK Under 23s and is getting closer to a long standing men’s club 1500m record. It is also a qualifying time for next month’s British Athletics Championship which will held at the same venue and for which he will now prepare whilst also sitting his final university exams.
Young Caspian Holmes was at least as impressive as the South London Athletics Network open meeting at Sutton, as a more even pacing strategy than in his previous races saw him clock a big 1500m PB of 4:27.59, placing ninth in a race against much older athletes. Holmes propelled himself to the top of the national Under 13 boys rankings for the year so far. The winner of the same race was Herne Hill’s fastest Under 17, Keeran Sriskandarajah, who clocked his second fastest time to date as his 4:11.79 further demonstrated the strength of 1500m running within the club.
Highly ranked senior 1500m runner Katie Snowden travelled to Northern Ireland looking for a fast 800m race at the Mary Peters Gold Medal 50th Anniversary Belfast International meet where she faced fellow Tokyo Olympian Ciara Mageean of Ireland. Frustratingly there was no pacemaker for their race and Snowden Katie effectively became Mageeans’s pacer to 600m down a windy back straight before the latter took the win with 2:01.34. Snowden didn’t give up the battle and finished exactly a second in arrears with 2:02.34, which represents a good early season return to 800m racing. Snowden is now ranked ninth in the UK at this race distance. Both Olympians then added to their afternoon’s work by ensuring that the women’s 5000m race did have pacemakers for their early laps.
Two more Herne Hill internationals raced overseas. Kristal Awuah raced in Poznan, Poland on Friday where she raced twice over 100m and improved her season’s best times to 11.57 with an allowable following wind speed, along with a wind assisted 11.52. In the USA Tezas San Antonio student Ore Adamson placed second in the women’s triple jump at NCAA Division 1 West Prelims with a best jump of 12.61m, also with a following wind just above the legal limit.
Other young athletes who performed well at the SLAN open meeting in Sutton included U17 Dante Clarke with 14.10 in the 100m hurdles and U13 Jasmine Nkoso 12.14 in the 70m hurdles. U15 Dylan Taylor clocked 13.10 in the 100m and 13.13 in the 80m hurdles and U17 Khelya Ekwe 27.43 in the 200m. Some more notable 1500m times were recorded by U13 Zacchaeus Kelman 5:06.70, U15 Lucy Wright 4:58.62, U20 David Aisa Miller 4:29.43 and U15 Alexander Wilson 4:30.75.
A handful of sprinters raced at the Dagenham Be Fit Today Outdoor Series meeting on Saturday. 100m runners Michael Miller ran 10.79 and 10.70 in two separate races and Victor Nzolele 10.99 and 11.25. Charmaine Grant ran 12.79 and 12.80, while U15 Fred Hake clocked a 200m PB with 24.66.
In road racing, the Serpentine Last Friday of the Month 5km saw a good run from Julia Wedmore, who was third female in 18:53. A good Harriers turnout also saw Matt Kaufman ninth in 16:41, Paul Calver 15th in 17:03, Jonathan Ratcliffe 34th and second M55 in 18:16, Simon Evans 65th with 20:05, Richard Stansfield 100th in 21:55and Valdis Pauzers 109th and second M65 in 22:22.
Geoff Jerwood