Gavin Johnson-Assoon of Herne Hill Harriers was crowned England champion in the men’s javelin at the UK CAU Inter Counties and England Athletics Senior AAA Championships on Saturday. These two national championships were combined into one meeting at Bedford International Athletics Stadium and in addition to his England gold medal Gavin’s throw of 66.78m also won him the silver medal in the UK Inter Counties champs as he placed second overall behind a Scottish athlete. Johnson-Assoon’s performance has earned him a well deserved selection to represent England at an International Throws Meet in Leira, Portugal this coming weekend.
At the same dual national championship on Sunday Harriers’ Great Britain under 23 800m international Katie Snowden moved down a distance to finish second in the women’s 400m final. Snowden recorded her fastest time for the one lap event since 2011 with her 55.08 seconds and was presented with silver medals for both the England and Inter Counties champs. Both Johnson-Assoon and Snowden represented Surrey in the Inter Counties event and of course Herne Hill in the England champs.
Elsewhere at the Allianz Stadium in Barnet in the London Inter Club Challenge meeting, Stacey Ward continued her recent club record breaking form as she has now run the fastest 3000m time by a Harriers female athlete, with her 9.27.60 taking almost 10 seconds off Clare Pauzers’ previous mark.
For good measure back at Bedford Brianna Mulvee set a new club women’s race walk record for the same 3000m distance that Stacey ran, with a superb 14.49.12 in finishing 4th overall in the EA Champs/Inter Counties race. Other excellent performances at Bedford included a fine PB for Rushane Thomas who was 7th in the men’s 110m hurdles final clocking 14.48 while Peter Phillips only missed out on a place in the final of a very strong in depth men’s 400m by 3 hundredths of a second with his 48.42 semi final clocking after a slightly faster run in his heat.
Harriers’ young athletes also got into the act of setting club records as the U13 girls team improved their club 4 x 100 relay record at the SLAN under 13/15 open meeting running 52.8, a time that ranks them in the top five in the country. The team of Michealla Pottinger, Ria Edwards, Faith Price and Monae Winston have improved the record by a full second in the past month and took part in the club:connect relays at the Olympic stadium the previous weekend.