The following morning at 09:15 Wandsworth Borough runners met at the Millennium Arena in Battersea Park to trial for the mini marathon in April. Luckily it was a sunny day and on a path so there wasn’t another load of muddy clothes to be brought back home. The course was 4k and there were about 30 runners at the start waiting for horn to blast at 10am sharp. Eloise O’Shaughnessy shot off to a good start leading throughout the whole race by about 500 meters. The course was relatively long but everyone finished. Eloise stormed to the finish line in first position in a time of 12:13 mins with plenty of cheering. Clarissa Nicholls finished in 2nd place in 13:04 mins followed by Yasmin Marghini from Belgrave Harriers and two more Herne Hill athletes Lucy Olsen (13:32) and Abigail Cunningham (13:42). There were great runs also from Amy Miller, Vanya Nunn, Olivia Goodwin, Ella Hemming and Emma Simpson.
Next up were the under 13 boys all of whom made a good start and kept it going around the course. Oscar Millard from Herne Hill finished in 1st place in a time of 12:08 mins with Oscar White from Hercules Wimbledon in 2nd (12:16 mins) and Herne Hill’s Mohammed Ali in 3rd place (12:36 mins). Great runs also from Herne Hill’s Freddy Hodgson, Thomas Rigaro-Asquith, Daniel Craig-McFeeely.
Later the under 15 and 17 girls started, they all did very well around the whole course encouraged by the cheering of the fellow Herne Hill Harriers. Saskia Millard (U15) came first in 12:19 mins to give the Millard family a double whammy and Skye O’Shaughnessy (U17) came a very respectable 2nd in 12:55 mins to underline Herne Hill’s dominance in middle distance running. Maddie Shaw, Tatiana Cooke, Alice Setyabule, Daisy Setyabule, Georgia Green and Olivia Lamont also put in solid performances.
The next race was the under 15 and 17 boys all of whom made a very good performance. Ed Olsen (U17) took 1st place in 10:51 mins, followed by Mohammed Et-Taheri U17 (11:32) and Abel Tadesse (11:40) from Herne Hill who was the first of the U15 boy finishers. Malik Nahali, Sam Cohen, Kingsley Ezeh, Paul Chalobah, Callum Barker, James Pettem, Andrzej and Fraser McIntosh also performed really well.
Later on in the morning there was a large crowd of under 11s getting ready for their 2k fun run. Herne Hill’s Bea Sheehan was 2nd in the U11 girls’ race and Christo Chilton at only 8 years of age was 6th in the U11 boy finishers despite having to start at the back to let the older Year 6s start on the front line. I think they all enjoyed it thoroughly.
Clarissa Nicholls