Herne Hill Harriers enjoyed a very successful Surrey County combined events and relays championships at David Weir leisure Centre Sutton to close their summer season. Despite a shortened season due to covid restrictions there were some superb performances with several championship best performances and leading marks for the year.
In the combined events Dante Clarke was a comprehensive winner of the U17 mens octathalon with a score of 4144 points which included PBs in discus (32.30m) and javelin (29.24m) whilst English Schools 800m champion Keeran Sriskandarajah who broke the clubs 1500m club record during the week won the U15 boys heptathlon with 2609 points
The club won seven relay titles with the highlights being championship best performance of 2.54.59 for the U15 girls 4 x 300m team of Lucy Wright, Lily Rose Brown, Sophia Sahai and India Blakey whose time was also a new club record and the leading time in the country this summer and the U20 womens 4 x 100m relay team of Shanice Daley, Lizlove Fenning, Tia Meghie and Ninyah Costley who ran 49.66 which ranks 11th in the country this year.
There was an exciting and high quality U15 boys 4 x 300m in which Hercules Wimbledon just pipped Herne Hill Harriers team of Frederick Hake, Keeran Sriskandarajah, Joshua Lee Baum and Adam Nkoso with both teams running the first two fastest times in the country this year with Herne Hill finishing in 2.38.58 just outside their club record. The lead changed several times in the race with Adam being overtaken in the final 60 metres.
The clubs younger athletes were in good form with the U13 boys and girls teams both winning their 4 x 100m relays. The boys team of Zico Blake, Matthew Thomas, Freddie Ricketts and Sam Fuller comfortably held off a strong Hercules Wimbledon finish to win in 52.58 and the girls team of Niamh Noble, Amelia Simon, Alessia Manna and Ella Rennie won a dramatic race with two disqualifications and Surrey individual sprint champion Ella storming down the finishing straight to win the gold on the dip for an exciting finish in a time of 55.07.
With few opportunities to practice relay races this summer – they were postponed until end of June- the quality of the relays were very high. Other wins came from the U17 womens 4 x 300m team and U20 mens 4 x 100m whilst to underline the enthusiasm within the club two B teams won bronze medals in the U15 girls 4 x 300m and U17 womens 4 x 100m races.
Steve Bosley