More than 100 Herne Hill Harriers contest the first Surrey League, with a combination of individual and team wins
The first of the 2026/27 Surrey League matches took place on Wimbledon Common, 11th October 2026, with 101 HHH athletes competing for the Club.
Our Young Athletes had a great start to the League with team wins for the U12B, U14G, U14B and U16G, and our U12G and U16B finishing 3rd. Our Senior Women were 2nd A and 2nd B teams, and our Senior Men 3rd A and 3rd B teams.
It is fifty years since female athletes first became members of Herne Hill Harriers, and it was great to see 23 of our women racing in the red and black. Once again, a combination of quality and depth resulted in excellent team finishes in the new seven to score format, with our A and B teams both finishing in 2nd place. Margaret Coogan continued her excellent run of form, leading home our women in 4th place, and we had two others in the top ten, Sophie Tooley 7th and Liv Stillman 10th. Helena Keenan was 18th, Gabriel Reynolds (4th W40) 28th and debutant Alice Bridger Morales 29th to close the A team. Our B team comprised Megan Gildea 44th, Charlotte Davies 62nd, Soraya Lockwood 63rd, Ella Newton 76th, Madelaine Parmar 78th, Shannon Sinclair 80th and Chloe Wright 84th. Nikki Sturzaker matched Gaby's age group finish with her 4th place in the W50 category.
Thirty seven of our men raced the fast 8km course, with carbons as much on display as XC spikes. Our A and B teams each finished 3rd. Sam Bramwell led the charge, battling with two 13.30 5km athletes at the sharp end, in this ten to score format. He finished an excellent 3rd, and was backed up by two further HHH athletes in the top twenty, Morgan Roberts 15th and club captain Danny Shaw 17th. Recovering from a fall at the start which meant he was close to the back of the field, Tom Austin stormed through to 22nd place, Surrey League debutant Rowan Board was 29th and Liam Burthem 35th to close our first six. The remainder of our scoring A team comprised George Withers 53rd, Ashley Gonclaves 57th, Harry Roberts 29th and, another faller, Joseph Grehan Bradley 83rd. Our first three B team scorers were also inside the top 100, Ioan Jenkins 85th, Ronan Tanguy 93rd and Jeff Cunningham (4th M40) 95th. Other B team scorers included George Jackson 109th, Alex Gutteridge 119th, Jack Brotchie 123rd, Ben Palmer 138th, Tom O'Mahoney 141st, Stephen Mcleod 144th and Caleb Hathaway 153rd.
In the Young Athletes, Iggy Scibor Kaminski led the U12B's home with an individual win, and there was excellent packing behind with Manuel Fisac Gazze 4th, Ethan Mansour 7th, Nathan Weissman, Ivor Keogh-Cockerell and Sammy Lloyd 9th, 10th and 11th respectively, Richard Fisher 16th and Luke Tatlow 18th. Josh Lotter led home the U14B team finishing in second position, Tommy Howard was 5th Rafe Home 10th, Owen Freestone 13th and Jaden Laanigui 16th.
Ted Jones was our first U16 B finisher in 3rd place, Henry Kucerov 13th, John Reynolds 20th, Conor Harrow 23rd, Elliott Albert-Preskett 25th, Benjamin Thomas 27th, Theo Hough 30th and Miki Hirsig 44th. Luca Bolton was 9th in the U18M race.
Alexa Thomas won the U12G race, with Clementine Weane 7th and Islay Lerner 17th. Olivia Fisher was our first U14G in 6th, with Emily James 7th, Phoebe McNee 12th, Freya Greenhalgh 13th, Arya Radcliffe 16th, Alexia Powell-Jackson 23rd, and others including Imogen Watford, Lia Guerra-Baciu, Orla Coultard and Aliina Culley.
Skyla O'Brien had an easy win in the U16G race, with Poppy Mack 7th, Scarlett Pyemont 12th and Isobel McLennan 16th, with others including Malaika Trim, Amber Williamson, Rebecca Brooks and Hannah Webb. Annabel Wainwright was 5th in the U18W and Zoe Dodgson 7th.
On a weekend when we were celebrating the anniversary of our women's/girl's membership, it was great to see recent World Road Running Championship contestant and Club Honours member, Georgie Grgec, win the Nike Melbourne Half Marathon, 69.24. Sam Brashaw ran a very similar time to Georgie to win the Royal Parks Half Marathon.