Herne Hill Harriers are celebrating two National age group champions from over the weekend. Ore Adamson won the Under 17 Women’s long jump title at the England Athletics U15/U17/U20 Indoor Championships in Sheffield, while Jaden Kennedy became the Under 13 Boys race winner at the Saucony English National Cross Country Championship in Nottingham.
Kennedy’s fantastic win is reported separately, while Indoors at Sheffield, Adamson underlined her current position as number one in the country at Under 17 Women’s long jump. A talented all round sportswoman, Adamson’s latest personal best mark of 5.89m won the title by a margin of 17cm and she this year finds herself at the youngest end of her age group, which makes her performances all the more remarkable and exciting.
Monae Winston was also on the national podium at Sheffield as her time of 7.85 second saw her place second in the Under 15 Girls 60m final, another fabulous achievement for a Harriers athlete, while Kristal Awuah just missed a medal in fourth place in the Under 20 Women’s 60m final with her 7.51 clocking. The other Herne Hill athlete to qualify for a national indoor final was Lakeisha Owusu-Junior, who finished seventh in the Under 17 Women’s 60m in a time of 7.79 after a PB of 7.69 in her semi-final.
Back to Nottingham cross country, Herne Hill Harriers senior teams performed admirably in Wollaton Park, beating all of our local rivals with the exception of Kent AC. Herne Hill men’s and women’s teams were both ahead of the likes of Hercules Wimbledon, Blackheath and Bromley, Thames Hare & Hounds and Belgrave Harriers as the men placed thirteenth of 131 teams and our women sixteenth of 93 complete teams. Harriers men were led by excellent runs from Lewis Lloyd forty-fourth and Jay Rossiter fifty-fifth of almost 1,800 finishers and Katie Moore was first among Herne Hill women placing seventy-fifth in a field of almost 800.