Great season opener at SEAA relays; Super win for U18 Men, five team medals, three fastest individual legs including one fastest ever, and one team course record
The Herne Hill Harriers Young, Senior and Masters' athletes rolled into action for the first big team event of the winter season. Rushmoor Arena has, mercifully, been the venue for this event for most of the period since 1988. Incredibly, the Senior Men's individual lap record of 17.07, Andy Bristow, has stood since 1989. What a sight it was to see James Kingston equal that record this year. This was not the only record to be challenged or surpassed, as our magnificent U18 Men's team produced a winning time of 42.28 for the 3 x 4.6km legs, 20 seconds inside the previous course record of 42.48.
We fielded an A and B team in the U18 M race, and all six boys had been nurtured by James McDonald. A very talented squad. James Clements-Nash took it to the opposition on the first leg running a superb 13.48, to finish in 2nd place, and the third quickest ever U17/18 time on this course. Tommy Clerkin was the quickest of the leg 2 runners, taking us into a lead of over 30 seconds with his 14.06, a top 10 overall time. This left 3.51 1500m man and English Schools medalist Caspian Holmes to finish the job, which he did with a 14.34 clocking. Our B team finished 24th in a highly competitive field, and included Luca Boulton 15.08, Zachary Morris 15.14 and Leau Roch 15.53. Great running from our U18s.
There were two further sets of team medals amongst our Young Athletes. Our U14 Boys team of Josh Lotter, Rafe Horne and Tommy Howard were an excellent 2nd place, with times of 9.47, 10.24 and 10.31 for the 3km leg. Josh's 9.47 was the fastest leg of the day and a new lap record, surpassing the previous quickest of 9.49, with their team finishing time being the third quickest ever. Our B team finished 28th.
Our other Young Athletes' team medalists were the U16 Girls, who finished 3rd in the 3 x 3km event. Skyla O'Brien led the way with an outstanding opening leg of 10.05, the quickest leg of the day, with Isobel Mclennan and Cataleya Holmes completing the team, with legs of 11.04 and 11.43, for a superb team result.
On a day when HHH girls and women were prominent across the age ranges, it was great to see our U18 Women finish in 6th place in the 3 x 4.6km event, with a really consistent team performance. Annabel Wainwight ran 17.23, Lementine Cole 17.37 and Zoe Dodgson 17.56, and a B team in 27th position.
Our U16 Boys finished 18th and 51st, with Ted Jones producing our fastest leg of 9.43.
The Club's athletes produced some outstanding team performances in the Senior and Masters categories. We were one of the few Club's to field three Senior Women teams, underlying the quality and depth of our squad. Our A team were magnificent, with 34 seconds covering the four legs. Margeret Coogan, who had contested the Copenhagen Half Marathon last week, produced a super opening leg of 21.08 on this challenging 6km course for 11th position. Helena Keegan ran a brilliantly judged race, paced to perfection with a strong second lap and moving the team to 6th, 21.42. It has been said of Irish Cross Country runners that there are soft men, hard men and there is John Downes. This analysis has some resonance with mother of three Gaby Reynolds, who produced a brilliant third leg in taking us to 3rd place, 21.21. Liv Stillman closed the team, momentarily getting us up to 2nd place, but closing in 3rd, with an outstanding 21.17. Our B team finished 29th and C team 35th, of the 57 finishers.
Our Senior Men also fielded three teams, for the six leg format over the same 6km course. The A team produced our equal best ever finish of 4th place, and a new quickest ever time for the Club of 1.50.37. Harry Bell delivered a 'coming of age' road relay leg with his brilliant 18.06 on the opening leg, for 5th position. Lewis Laylee ran an excellent 18.35 on leg 2, for 9th place, before Sam Bramwell was unleashed to produce his quickest ever time here to take us into the lead, 17.40, on the back of a hard training week. This was the 4th quickest leg of the day. Ollie Mills came home in 3rd place with his 18.45, and Ross Brown 4th with 18.59. This left team captain Danny Shaw on leg six, with a 1500m international to contend with. Danny 'did an Arlo' and hit it hard with 600m remaining in the bowl, incredibly holding off the challenge to finish in 4th position. His 18.30 being a big 'PB'. Once again, our B team qualified for the National Road Relays with an excellent 21st place finish, second B team, with strong legs from Ashley Gonclaves and Harry Roberts, both 19.07, and our C team were 33rd, with two sub 20 minute times, and first C team.
Our M60 team won silver medals, helped massively by David Taylor's quickest of the day, 22.09, and backed up by Keith Newton, 25.02, Graeme Moyse, 23.55 and Tom Conlon, 25.38, whilst our M40 team finished 10th, with Jeff Cunningham's 19.59 being our quickest leg.