A small group of Herne Hill Harriers athletes travelled to Sheffield over the weekend to compete at the England Athletics Age Group (U15/U17/U20) Indoor Championships and Dante Clarke brought home a national championship bronze medal in his event.
A talented combined events athlete, Clarke focused on the Under 17 men’s long jump and produced a fine personal best leap of 6.45m to place third on the day and secure a place on the podium. This performance also ranks him third in the UK U17 men’s list for the year so far and rewards the hard work put in by both Clarke and his coach Anthony Mayhew.
A successful trip to the north was also enjoyed by a couple of Harriers Under 15 sprinters, as Jordan Ebanks and Luca Anderson both experienced major championship heats and semi-finals on Saturday. Both ran PBs for 60m and Ebanks placed 8th in the final with 7.71 seconds. No doubt tired in his third race of the day, Ebanks had run faster in his semi-final to qualify for the final, clocking a PB of 7.62. Curiously Anderson ran faster in his semi-final, but his 7.59 did not see him advance as he was in the stronger of these two semis. Anderson nevertheless moves up into the top 20 in the UK for 2022 so far with this run.
There were also some very promising performances at the Surrey indoor championship at Carshalton at the weekend, with some Surrey medallists and good numbers competing in the age groups and senior athletes.
On day one gold medals were claimed by Amelia Simon in the U13 girls long jump with 4.08m and Joseph Johnson-Cole in the U15 boys 60m with 7.59. Johnson-Cole ran a fast 7.48 in his heat and 7.49 in his semi-final, his heat time currently ranking him eighth in the country in his age group.
Ella Rennie won a silver medal in the U15 girls 60m in 8.19 and also a bronze in the long jump with 4.36m. Dylan Taylor was also a double medallist, placing second in the U15 boys long jump with 5.29m and third in the 60m hurdles with 9.79. Also in this age group James Brookes was third in the high jump with 1.45m. James Marshall won a bronze long jump medal with 5.35m in the U17 men’s event and Leon Smith a silver in the senior men with 5.65m.
At the beginning of the weekend on Friday evening the Podium Under the Lights road races promised some top performances in Battersea Park and this event certainly delivered, with no less than 110 men running under 15 minutes for the 5km distance. There were around 270 runners in total across four races, including 43 women in one wave, with the leading four ladies running sub 16 minutes. It was very exciting to see this in a local South London park.
Herne Hill Harriers athletes produced some good runs which included a number of PBs. Lewis Laylee was the fastest in Herne Hill red and black with a superb time of 14:39. Laylee was followed by Australian Brandon Dewar in 14:58, then Dan Shaw 15:00, Andrew Warburton 15:25, Carl Delaney 16:03 and Ross Brown 16:07 among the men, while in the elite women’s race Sophie Harris clocked 17:08 to place 27th.
Across the pond on Saturday British Junior International athlete Phoebe Anderson ran a big PB of 9:23.54 for an indoor 3000m track race in New York, while down under at the New South Wales track and field championship in Sydney, Nick Dewar, twin brother of Brandon, also ran a PB for 5000m with 14:35.58.
On the roads at the Hyde Park Relays another young star Alex Brown ran 17:38 for a 5km leg for her Oxford University team on a windy course on Saturday.
On Sunday morning wind still blowing around the courses John Kettle placed a good 16th at the Valentine’s 10km road race in Chessington in 33:13 and his first M45 position should see him selected to race for England Masters later this year. Not far behind John was Bryn Reynolds, 18th in 33:23, then Simon Wade clocked 36.06, M50 Jonathan Ratcliffe 36:51 and Jenni Nandi 46.32.
Also on Sunday Eoin Brady was a good 6th in the RunThrough Victoria Park half marathon in 77:34 as he builds up for a marathon debut in the coming weeks.
This Saturday sees the final Surrey League cross country fixture of this season at Effingham Common, where Herne Hill will hope for a strong turnout in all age groups.
Geoff Jerwood