Herne Hill Harriers Katie Snowden raced in the elite women’s one mile road race at the BBC One televised Great North City Games on Saturday afternoon in Newcastle, the day before the Great North Run which attracted its usual huge field of runners on the Sunday. Racing an invitational field of international middle distance athletes, Snowden placed eighth in 4.43.25 to round off what for her has been a very good breakthrough summer season.
Also closing their track & field seasons, a number of Harriers’ younger athletes competed at the Surrey County multi events and relay championships at the David Weir Leisure Centre in Carshalton. In the relays on Saturday teams from the club won three sets of gold medals and one silver, as well one each of individual gold, silver and bronze in individual events.
In the under 15 girls events Herne Hill teams won with the 4 x 300m and the 4 x 100m relays. Michella Pottinger, Eva Holland, Isobel Penniceard and Jessica Tabraham claimed victory in the 4 x 300m, winning in a time of 3.01.83. Michella was also in the golden 4x100m ream with Je’nae James, Cara Russell and Niyah Costley as they won in 50.32. In the under 13 girls relays the clubs team of Sapphire Haley, Jasmine Coss-Mullings, Zoe Ijinigba and Shania McGrath won the 4x100m in 54.50 and with Evelyn Mulwinda replacing Coss-Mullings they also won silver medals in the 4 x200m. Individually the u15 boys pentathlon Memphis Ayoade, making his combined events debut, came second with 2,417 points with his highlight being a PB equalling 1.80m high jump, while Katie Balme retained her Surrey County U17 women’s title in the 1500m steeplechase in a time of 5.29.65 in a race where Jemima Hayward-Bhikha was also third in 6.36.21.
On Sunday Harriers’ teams won two more gold team medals in the under 15 boys 4x 100m in 47.97 and under 17 men’s 4x 100m in 45.89, plus silvers in the under 15 boys 4 x 300m in 2.42.94 and under 17 men’s 4 x 200m in 1.37.64. The Herne Hill U15 boys team was Ignatius Abresese, Noah Ojumu, Kai Broadbent and Memphis Ayoade and the U17 men’s team was Gbolahan Jimoh, Te-Sing Burley, Micah Goode and Rami Miller as the same teams of four completed both relays in their respective age groups. To complete a superb medal haul for the weekend the U13 boys team of Dante Clarke, Alexandre Gruffat, Amir Howe and Dwyane Francis were third in the 4 x 200m and the U17 women’s team of Michella Pottinger, Saffron Tuck, Scarlett Martin and Shanice Daley were third in the 4 x 100m.
In road running action, Ben Paviour was the winner at the Pangbourne 10k as he now approaches his 45th birthday, while both Fiona de Mauny and Gen Huss both placed second among the women in their 10k races at Hellingly in 40.34 and Clapham Common in 41.07 respectively. Herne Hill were also represented overseas as at the European Masters Marathon in Wroclaw, Poland Matt Munro clocked 2.59, Jonathan Ratcliffe 3.01 and Robin Jones 3.06, with both of the latter having done relatively little running due to injuries, making their performances all the more creditable. Also racing abroad, Matt Robertson ran around 78 minutes at the Stockholm half marathon.
At the local parkruns, Harriers had a couple of winners as the Dulwich event was won by Mohammed Ismail in 16.11 and Bryn Reynolds was first across the line on Wimbledon Common in 17.04 to add to what was quite a variety of successes for the club.
Geoff Jerwood