Herne Hill Harriers womens team failed gallantly to win promotion from Division Three of the UK Women’s League by the narrowest of margins.
Going into the final match at Wigan there was a three way battle for promotion places with Herts Phoenix leading with 15 pts, Herne Hill having 14 pts and City of Liverpool third with 13 pts
City of Liverpool took advantage of being at home with a commanding performance calling on their best athletes including Olympian and World Indoor pentathlon champion Katarina Johnson Thompson who warmed up for this month’s World Championships by competing in the javelin. This left Herne Hill & Herts Phoenix to battle for the final place with Herne Hill needing to beat Herts Phoenix in a four club match by over 20 match points to overtake them in the league table. After an exciting afternoon Herne Hill were second but only twelve points ahead of Herts Phoenix which meant Herts Phoenix snatched the final promotion place
Herne Hill enjoyed a lot of success on the track with Shanice Harrison winning both A string sprints in 12.46 and 24.77 and recent club record breaker Stacey Ward recording an excellent 1500m/3000m win double. Other wins came from Hannah Edwards in the 800m in 2.16.32 and the closing 4 x 400m relay whilst Stephanie Mitchell won the B string 400m 800m and 1500m.
Michella Obijaiku was our only winner in the field events winning the shot putt with 11.93m. We picked up valuable points with second places with the B string shot (Kathleen Moeller 6.88m) and B string high jump (Michella Obijiaku 1.45m) where every point proved vital. The points ebbed and flowed all afternoon and in the second half of the meeting we were narrowly over the target of leading Herts Phoenix by the twenty points total. However in the final half hour Herts Phoenix bounced back with good points in the high jump and the javelin and we finished agonizingly close after a tremendous effort in which everyone had played a valuable part
Final score City of Liverpool 258 Herne Hill Harriers 227 Herts Phoenix 215 Belgrave 175 pts
Steve Bosley