In addition to the excellent young athletes team performances, Herne Hill’s senior men placed fourth at the Southern Cross Country Relay Championshio at Wormwood Scrubs, only just outside the medals.
Mike Cummings led off well to hand over in fourth in a time of 13.57. Alan Barnes then maintained this position with his 14.33 stint, followed by Jeff Cunningham’s 14.57, which saw our anchor leg runner David Mulvee take over in sixth place. Dave ran a strong split of 14.11 to overtake two teams to bring us home in fourth in what was a faster overall team time than on a couple of previous occasions where we have claimed medals at this event.
Second claim Harriers members Richard Henderson and Niall Sheehan raced for their first claim club teams. Rich ran second leg for Bedford, clocking 14.26 chasing close behind Alan, while Niall’s 14.12 was good enough to anchor Newham to team silver medals. Mike sixth and Dave ninth were both in the top ten overall times on the day.
In the senior women’s race, Annes Stevens (12.44), Julia Wedmore (13.01) and Elyse Jenkins (14.14) all ran well to ensure we had a competitive team that finished thirteenth as Herne Hill fielded teams in eight of the ten age group races at the event.
Racing in the biggest running event of the weekend the following morning (televised live on Channel 5), the Great South Run 10 miles road race in Portsmouth, Stacey Ward’s time of 58.26 placed her seventeenth overall in the elite women’s race and tenth in the England Championship held in conjunction as she gets her winter campaign under way. Another second claim member Steph McCall finished eleven seconds and one place behind Stacey with 58.37 for eighteenth overall and eleventh in the England pecking order.