Young athletes excel indoors – Herne Hill Harriers

The indoor season between January and March proved to be a very exciting period for the clubs track and field athletes with lots of high quality performances

It was a particularly wet start of the year although not as cold as in many winters but of course no one knew that competition would grind to a halt in March due to the CO-VID 19 virus. A wide range of athletes from U13s to vets took advantage of the indoor programme to check their fitness and we had come excellent results at championships

The club has a long history of performing well at indoor competitions, long standing members could remember Selwyn Clarke being one of the country’s top sprinters over 60ms in the 80s and in the 90s and early 2000s many of the clubs athletes used to travel to Bedford and Birmingham for the National and Southern indoor championships rarely returning without a host of medals.

Nineteen different athletes achieved performances which ranked them in the top twenty in the country including four who were top ranked. Sophia Sahai and Zac Crowther from James McDonald’s young athletes distance group achieved their times in their only races indoors this winter at the BMC indoor meeting at Lee Valley as well as performing regularly over cross country during the winter months. Mabel Smith cleared 1.70m when winning the Surrey Indoor championships at Sutton in February and Dante Clarke who headed three events enjoyed a superb indoor season winning the National indoor U15 boys long jump and multi event titles

At the National U15/17/20 indoor championships at Sheffield Dante won the long jump title dramatically in the final round and three weeks later own the U15 boys pentathlon title setting two PBs over shot and 800m in setting a total of 2953 points. Alex Abebrese, in his first year at the agegroup, was third in the U15 boys shot and his brother Ignatius was second in the U17 mens triple jump. All three won medals in the SEAA indoor championships in January in which Victoria Alicante-King in her first compeitton for the club won the U15 girls shot

We had a successful Surrey indoor championship in February where winners included Luca Anderson u13 boys 60m, Sapphire Haley U15 girls 60m in a championship best performance, Dante Clarke U15 boys high jump with Andrew Barrett second for a club 1-2 and long jump Mabel Smith U17 womens high jump, Niyah Costley u17 womens 60m Jasmine Coss-Mullings U17 womens long jump and Makarios Mensah U17 womens triple jump, Ignatius Abebrese U17 mens triple jump Kai Broadbent U17 mens shot with Alie Sesay 2^nd for another HHH 1-2 & Aaron Brown senior mens triple jump

U13 girls

Sophia Sahai 1^st 1500m 4.58.08

Massita Diaby 13^th 60m 8.43m

U13 boys

Luca Anderson 4^th 60m 8.10

Jon Goldston 17th 800m 2.28.47

U15 girls

Sapphire Haley 3^rd 60m 7.73

Victoria Alicante-King 8^th shot 11.77m

U15 boys

Dante Clarke 1^st pentathlon 2953 pts

Dante Clarke 1^st long jump 6.33m

Dante Clarke 4^th high jump 1.75m

Dante Clarke 6^th 60m hurdles 8.79

Zac Crowther 1^st 800m 2.03,95

Alex Abebrese 4^th shot 12.84m

Andrew Barrett 12^th high jump 1.65m

U17 women

Mabel Smith 1^st = high jump 1.70m

Niyah Costley 12th 60m 7.76

Saskia King 16th 60m 7.78

Makarios Mensah 14th triple jump 10.92m

U17 men

Ignatius Abebrese 18th long jump 6.42m

Ignatius Abebrese 4^th triple jump 13.69m

Kai Broadbent 8^th shot 13.38m

U20 women

Lakiesha Owusu-Junior 9th 60m 7.66m

Havana Alliston-Greaves 14^th 400m 57.87

Havana Alliston-Greaves 7th^th 800m 2.12.94