Ore Adamson, Charlotte Alexander, Alex Brown, Saskia Millard, Lakeisha Owusu-Junior, Sarah Grover Lara Langston and Michella Obijiaku received their club colours award at the Annual Herne Hill Harriers presentation evening on Saturday 8th February in recognition of their achievements whilst members of the Club. The award of club colours is given to athletes who achieve high level performance and gain international recognition.
Ore Adamson joined as a ten year old and has progressed from winning the Surrey U13 girls long jump title as a 11 year old to winning two England Schools long jump titles, representing England Schools team and last year long jumped over six metres for the first time (6.24m) and was selected for Great Britain juniors in an international match in Wales.
Charlotte Alexander won the English Schools 3000m title last summer and ran for Great Britain junior team at the World cross country championships in Denmark last March finishing 49th despite only being an U17 at the time. Charlotte has been a member of the club’s medal winning road and cross country teams.
Alex Brown had won medals at five successive English Schools championships (two wins 2 silvers and a bronze) as well as being part of many of the club’s medal winning road and cross country teams since an U13. Alex was selected for Great Britain juniors last summer at the Loughborough international.
Saskia Millard was selected for Great Britain for the 3000m at the European U20 track and field champs (5th in the final) and was in the winning GB junior team at the European Cross country championships in December 2019 which finishing 11th. In both cases she won the trials and set new club under 20 women’s records over 1500m and 3000m. Saskia has been a member of the club’s road and cross country teams since being an U13.
Michella Obijiaku was selected to represent Italy for the European U23 championships in Finland in July after setting new club senior women’s records in the hammer (58.77m) and shot (16.23m) whilst at university in the USA.
Lakeisha Owusu-Junior was selected for Great Britain juniors for an international indoor meeting in February 2019 after finishing 2nd in the 60m final at the National indoor championships.
Sarah Grover and Lara Langston have both received international recognition in duathlons and triathlons in the past year.
These inaugural awards following the introduction of a new club rule were a new feature of this annual event which recognises the highest level performances of the previous cross country and track and field seasons across all of the age groups with some very strong categories evidenced by the quality and quantity of the nominees.
Another highlight was the Q and A sessions on stage in which Steve Knight first quizzed 2019 European Masters Championship medalists Giuseppe Minetti and Fiona de Mauny and then later on Junior internationals Ore Adamson and Lakeisha Owusu-Junior, with all giving very informative answers to inspire the young and older athletes, parents, coaches and club members who were in attendance at a successful event.