Herne Hill Harriers athletes won a string of medals at the South of England and the London Schools championships over the weekend.
The Tooting-based club’s hurdlers and sprinters took centre stage at the South of England event, where Marvin Popoola and Rushane Thomas would have run U20 club records had the wind not been over the legal limit.
Popoola won gold in the 200m, clocking 21.06 – which is faster than the club junior record but the wind speed of +3.4 m/s was significantly over the legal limit – on Saturday, before adding the 100m crown in 10.6 on Sunday. Popoola continues to chase the qualifying time of 21.00 over 200m for the World Junior Championship. It was the same story for Thomas who won gold in the 110m hurdles, running a would-be U20 record of 13.69, only to be thwarted by the wind gauge.
Jessie Knight, meanwhile, clinched medals in the 200m and 400m, winning the former event in 24.36 ahead of Jade Phillips on what was Knight’s 20th birthday, and racing to silver in the 400m with 54.43. There was also gold for Peter Philips in the senior 400m, running a personal best of 47.65, with Nicholas Atwell was fourth in 47.94, six-hundredths of a second outside a medal.
Other medallists included Tayo Andrews (silver in the U20 high jump), Gavin Johnson-Assoon (silver in the senior javelin), Blade Ashby (bronze in the senior 400m hurdles) and Dwayne Dowding (bronze in the senior 200m).
There were also notable performances at the London Schools event at Battersea, in particular a one-two-three of Saskia Millard, Maddie Shaw and Lucy Olsen in the junior girls’ 800m. Denisha Marshall-Brown was another winner and threw a championship best in the junior girls’ shot, while her brother, Dejean, matched her gold in the junior boy’s shot. Feysel Nadew’s excellent front running won him the intermediate boys’ 800m win in a personal best, with Paul Burgess winning a tactical 1500m in the same age category. Other intermediate winners were Catriona McSorley (gold in the triple jump), Adam Ssali (gold in the 100m hurdles), Michella Obijiaku (second in the shot) and Phillip Thomas (second in the triple jump). Turkay Korkmaz medalled in finishing second in the juniors boys’ 1500m, as did Alex Brown in the junior girls’ 1500m.
Away from the track, Gary Ironmonger was first V50 at the Self Transcendence 10k in Battersea Park, clocking a personal best 35.50 in finishing 11th overall. Racing in Llanwrtyd Wells in mid-Wales, Jonny Muir was fourth runner at the Man v Horse 24-mile trail race in two hours, 59 minutes, with Rick Pearson finishing 34th in three hours, 43 minutes. Closer to home, Mohammed Ismail won the Dulwich parkrun in 16.27 ahead of Vic Maughn in second in 17.26.
Jonny Muir
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