


The female athletes from Herne Hill Harriers continued their strong start to the road and cross country season as they claimed a good number of county medals on Saturday at the Surrey Masters Cross Championship in Nonsuch Park.
In unseasonably warm weather, a superb gold medal was won by Gaby Reynolds as first W40 and indeed the first female overall to finish. Karen Ellison was second W35 and Suzanne Swaine was third W40 for individual silver and bronze respectively. These three ladies in combination were winners of the team gold medals in the W35-44 category.
Strong running from Nikki Sturzaker added to the individual medals tally. Finishing a good second placed W45, she led a Harriers trio to bronze in the W45-54 team age group. The other team scorers here were Patrizia Gnoato (sixth W50) and Mary Setyabule (eighth W50).
On the men’s side Ben Paviour claimed the M45 gold medal only 10 days before his 50th birthday when he moves into an older age group. Ben Millar was 5th M45, but their M40-49 team was incomplete.
Herne Hill did have full teams in the older men’s age categories and won bronze in the M60-69s. Mike Boyle finishing fourth M60, Tom Conlon sixth M60 and Victor Maughn ninth M60 were the three medalists.
The M50-59 squad of Mohamed Haile (fifth M50), Jonathan Ratcliffe (fifth M55) and Trevor Chilton (12th M50) placed fifth team.
As part of an excellent numerical representation, other female finishers from the club were Alexandra Fedina (ninth W50), Samantha Whiting (17th W40), Jess Winfield (fifth W35), Alexandra Marginean (sixth W35), Penelope Cummings (17th W45), Sarah Allen (11th W55) and Flora Di Carlo (13th W55).
Our remaining male finishers were Robert Nagorski (12th M55), Richard Stansfield (20th M55), Tony Harran (17th M60), Ian Strong (29th M60) and Nigel Goodwin (15th M65) on a fine day for the Herne Hill veterans.
In road racing action further north there was a fine women’s race win on Saturday for Sophie Pikett on Saturday evening.
Racing at the prestigious Podium 5km in Barrowford, Lancashire. Pikett clocked 16:30 for the win, only a few seconds outside her PB. Her move up to Newcastle following her recent wedding is starting to bring a return to her best racing form as she has enjoyed two race wins and a PBs so far since the end of August.

Geoff Jerwood