Herne Hill Harriers’ Kiwi international Georgie Grgec made a breakthrough to the next level on Sunday morning in the Berlin Half Marathon as her 69:12 clocking was her first sub 70 minutes performance.
The 31-year- old finished sixth female in a world class field behind three Ethiopians and two Kenyan athletes. She bettered her previous PB by exactly a minute to now see her clearly at the top of the New Zealand women’s rankings at 5km, 10km and half marathon for the year to date.
Her time is a new Harriers club women’s record, and she also improved the Surrey women’s record previously held by Great Britain Olympic marathon runner Rose Harvey by 50 seconds to now bring this below the 70 minutes landmark.
She will now seek to build on her strong races so far this year with further improvements and an aim to represent her country at the World Athletics Road Running Championships 2025 in a few months from now.
Some of her male club mates also made the most of the trip to Germany to produce good results of their own. Grgec’s fiancé, Australian Brandon Dewar ran his second fastest time with 67:02 in 40th place, followed in 44th by Morgan Roberts, who continues to shave his PB with his 67:27 clocking. Matt Cartwright was 154th with a PB of 72:49, Seve Loudon 347th in 77:20 and Adam Westbury 685th in a PB of 81:07.
Elsewhere on Sunday U20 Harry Bell ran a PB of 14.43 at the Bristol Track Club 5km Road Races, while at the Vienna Marathon W40 Karen Ellison came away with a PB of 3:13:36 and M55 Andrew Simms ran 3:34:03.
In track competition the club hosted their first home match of the outdoor season at Tooting Bec Athletics Track on Sunday, the Ebbisham League for the younger boys age groups. Herne Hill finished second in the match with around half of the 50 boys who competed enjoying their first experience of club athletics.
Geoff Jerwood