Herne Hill Harriers senior track and field team played host on Saturday at Tooting to top of the table Epsom and Ewell, as well as East Grinstead and Sutton and District AC in the final round of Southern Athletics League matches. Provisional results indicate a very close victory for the red and blacks which, depending on other results, could lead to promotion to the second division following our first season in this league.
In the men’s events Herne Hill athletes accrued good points in the sprints, with wins for Eugene Osei Amevenu in the 100m, and Peter Phillips in the 200 and 400, whilst Kehinde Adenuga smashed his pb in the 400 B which he combined with an excellent win. Our men’s relay teams won both the 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m events.
In the men’s middle distance there were double wins for M40 Simon Coombes and M35 Mohammed Ismail, 1500 A and B, and for Jeff Cunningham (with a 5 second pb) and club senior steeplechase record holder Tom Conlon (nowadays a M55), in the 2000m s/c A and B respectively.
In the jumps there were good points across the range of events, including a win for Tyrell Howell, TJ B, and pbs for Jamal Powell TJ A and LJ B, and Adam Hawkins LJ A.
The Club’s men throwers were outstanding, with wins for Michael Wheeler, just outside his season’s best with 15.65m and Stuart Thurgood, season’s best, in the shot putt A and B, Thomas Ashby and Gavin Johnson-Assoon, discus A and B, Stuart Thurgood and Reiss Senior, hammer A and B, and Gavin again in his specialist event the javelin, backed up by Dejean Marshall-Brown who threw a pb for second in the B string.
In the women’s events Harriers’ athletes also scored good points in the sprints, with wins for Michelle Watson, 100m A and 200m A, whilst Olivia Sinclair won the 100m B string with a pb. Maddie Shaw was just outside her pb with an excellent 400m A win. In the middle distance events, there were good points from all races, with Kate Crawford securing the one victory in the 1500m B, her debut at the distance and therefore a pb!
The highlight of the women’s throws was Britti Francis’ massive pb in the shot put in winning the B string, whilst Denisha Marshall Brown won the women’s discus A, and Louise Capicotto won the B. Brtti also won the javelin B, another debut PB.
Our strongest jumping event was the high jump, where Bella Gibson and Ella Dennis secured a double win in A and B, and yet another of our U17 athletes, Florrie Craddock, won the A pole vault.
The following day at a Southern Inter Counties age group match at Oxford, Harriers’ young long jump star Ore Adamson was within centimetres of her own club under 15 girls record with her winning leap of 5.63m, while Cara Russell placed fifth in her U15G 200m final in 27.43 and in the under 15 boys races Oscar Millard was fourth in the 1500m in 4.26.81.
Away from the track, Sean Fitzpatrick followed up his second place in the 5000m at Tooting on Saturday with a win in the “Not the Rio Marathon” road race that finished in the London Olympic Park on the same day as the men’s Olympic marathon race in Rio. Sean’s winning time was 2 hours 47 minutes, 10 minutes ahead of M45 veteran club mate Jonathan Ratcliffe who placed third and was the winner of his age group category.