On Saturday 4th January in Croydon, the 2025 edition of the Surrey County Cross-Country Championship was hosted over Lloyd Park’s rolling hills and boggy valleys, including some frozen ground on sections of the challenging lap.
Over 900 athletes were entered across ten races of between two and seven-and-a-half miles, kicking off with under-13s, and culminating in the senior women’s race and then the men’s race.
Herne Hill Harriers were represented in every race through a successful day which saw the club win individual and team gold medals in the Under 15 boys’ category, plus team sliver in the U13 boys, U17 women and U20 men.
The U15 boys race saw Harriers dominate with five runners in the first twelve, led superbly by Caspian Holmes winning the individual title and a bronze medal performance from Tommy Clerkin. With four to score per team in these age groups the winning quartet was completed by Leau Roch and Edward Cunniffe in sixth and eighth respectively. Arnold Duan found a 12th place finish was not enough to score for such a strong team, but provided invaluable backup.
Holmes, Clerkin and Roch have been rewarded with automatic selection for the Surrey team for the National inter counties championship in March, whilst the other two Harriers could potentially be added on further results in the coming month.
The winner was too fast to catch up with, letting his run do his talking, but his teammates were ready with post-race comments. Clerkin said “I’m very proud to have won an individual bronze medal as well as a team gold medal for HHH at the Surrey Championships. I’m looking forward to the rest of the cross country races this season and the upcoming track season.”
Roch added “I am really happy with the result we achieved both as a team and personally. Thank you to James (McDonald) for the coaching and well done to everyone who competed and who helped.” Cunniffe said “race conditions weren’t too bad given all the preparation we have had on Streatham Common and Camber Sands with our coaches. It was great to be part of a winning team and securing team gold in a field with Hercules Wimbledon and Aldershot.”
The U13 boys were the first of three Herne Hill teams to claim silver medals. Their fab four comprised Josiah Aldham in seventh, Henry Kucerov ninth, John Reynolds 10th and Alfie Beasley-Suffolk 30th.
Both the U17 women and U20 men’s team races are contested by the best three scorers in age groups which tend to have a high rate of attrition despite the hard work of clubs to try to improve athlete retention levels. Sophie Jack, eighth, Maeve Minielly ninth and Martha Brennan 16th combined for the U17W, with Fabien Whitelock sixth, Harry Bell seventh and Alex Jack 10th formed the U20M trio.
The stellar season enjoyed thus far by Harriers senior women stalled a little as with A team regulars unavailable the team placed fourth on the day. However, Sophie Tooley produced one of the best individual runs in the red and black colours as her excellent fourth saw her only seconds away from a podium position. Improving with every race, this represents her strongest performance in her eighteen months so far with the club.
The U13 and U15 girls teams both finished sixth. U13 scorers were Isobel McLennan 20th, Poppy Mack 27th, Genevieve Meek 32nd and Eva Burke 42nd. For the U15s Sofia Mendes was 16th, Clementine Cole 30th, Jojo Solly 57th and Lottie Gowland-Smith 60th.
An U17 men’s trio saw Leon McConnon 17th, Alfie Bryan 23rd and Raphael Lerner 31st form a seventh placed team. The U20 women was the only category in which Herne Hill’s team was incomplete, but nevertheless featured a good ninth place finish for Kaitlin Hewitt.
The final race of the saw thirteen Harriers senior men starters, led by Andrew Clarke in 12th place. Following Clarke were Alex Gutteridge 57th, Fintan Kearney 67th, Ben Millar 74th, Stephen McLeod 81st, with Calum Murphy 84th to close out the scoring team of six.
Although the senior women’s team at Lloyd Park was depleted, there were some excellent road race performances earlier in the week on New Year’s Eve in Battersea Park. The Mizuno Podium 5km elite women’s race was the highlight of a stellar afternoon of racing as it featured Paris Olympics 1500m semifinalist Revee Walcott Nolan who duly took the win with a finish on the athletics track.
Rising star Lucy Jones, winner of the London Cross-Country Championships in November at Parliament Hill, took another step forward with a superb fifth place finish with an 18 seconds PB of 16:12. All four athletes ahead of her are current Great Britain internationals.
Not far behind Jones were Darcie Hey and Tooley, who placed 13th and 14th. Hey lowered her PB by 12 seconds with her 16:43 clocking and Tooley took 20 seconds off her previous best with 16:46. Grace Leyland was 27th with 17:17 and Annabel Hobday came 38th with 17:47.
Geoff Jerwood