The weekend saw the British Championship and Olympic Trials meeting in Birmingham with Herne Hill Harriers represented during all three days sessions of competition and with a club women’s record being set in a non-Olympic event, but our home track at Tooting Bec was the scene of probably the most eye catching performance from a Harriers athlete in the Ebbisham Boys League on Sunday.
Jaden Kennedy, who already heads the under 13 boys UK rankings for 800m added the 1500m top spot to his current claims as he won a 1500m race in a fast time 4:30.0. This is also a club age group record, improving on his own previous best mark by over four seconds.
In Birmingham the first track event on the final day was the women’s 5000m race walk, an event which witnessed a fine performance by an athlete wearing Harriers red and black colours. Brianna Mulvee placed a superb third in the race, but as an Australian guest was not eligible to stand on the podium, her reward instead being an excellent PB and club senior women’s record of 24:35.56 which a good many fun runners would be pleased to replicate in their parkruns and similar events.
Other Harriers athletes in Birmingham included Jonathan Grant placing tenth in the men’s long jump final with 7.19m, only narrowly missing the cut for the top eight competitors who qualify for six jumps rather than three. Nicholas Atwell returned from injury to record a good 47.85 to qualify from the highly competitive men’s 400m heats and was then close to this mark in his semi-final where he finished seventh in 48.34. Gavin Johnson-Assoon was twelfth in the men’s javelin and Michael Wheeler eighth in the men’s shot put, both being a little below their recent high standards.
Harriers only female representative in Birmingham other than the guesting Mulvee in the walk was Katie Snowden, who boldly toed the start line after a very untimely illness and was fourth in her heat in the women’s 800m on Saturday. Snowden put herself in the right place in a slow, tactically run race, but not being back to full strength was unable to qualify for the final as a fastest loser among the very high quality entry which saw one or two of the favourites fall by the wayside. As one of the youngest competitors among the invited athletes in her event, Snowden has time on her side in the longer term despite frustration in missing out on this year’s championships.