Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Awuah wins bronze at European U23 Championship

BY GEOFF JERWOOD

Kristal Awuah claimed a bronze medal in the final of the women’s 100m at the European U23 Championships in Tallinn last Friday.

She comfortably won her heat on Thursday in 11.36 seconds. Awuah, who took bronze in the 100m and 4x100m relay at the World Junior Championship in Finland in 2018, won her semi-final in 11.33. They are two of her fastest four times recorded so far in 2021.

She was at the head of the field for around 80m of the final before being caught by the German winner and only lost out on a silver medal by one hundredth of a second – clocking 11.44 against a minus 1.3 metres per second wind.

Five Harriers placed in the top four in their events at the English Schools Athletics Association Championship in Manchester, held between Friday and Sunday.

Keeran Sriskandarajah (pictured above) won the first of the two races in 2:01.17 in the junior boys 800m. His winning time was exactly replicated in the second race, so the gold medal was shared.

Victoria Alicante-King claimed a silver medal in the junior girls shot put with 12.74m, just six centimetres shy of the gold medal performance and her second furthest throw to date.

Ignatius Abebrese won a senior boys bronze medal in the triple jump with his best leap of 14.18m.

Younger brother Alexander placed third in the junior boys shot put (14.05m) on Sunday.

Je’nae James placed fourth in the senior girls shot put with a PB of 11.45m.

Poppy Craig McFeely had a disrupted build up with injury niggles and finished ninth in the senior girls 1,500m in 4:37.21, less than 1.5 seconds outside her PB.

Herne Hill finished third behind Croydon Harriers and Belgrave Harriers at the Southern Athletics League in Battersea Park on Sunday.

The middle distance athletes scored well, none more so than Arlo Ludewick. He ran the 400m hurdles in 68.3, then shortly afterwards won a decent quality 800m A string in 1:55.4. He came second in the B 400m in 53.1, won the A 1,500m in 4:10.5 and ran last leg in one of the mixed 4x400m relay teams. Jack Brotchie won the B 1,500m, also with a PB of 4:17.0.

Harriers took all three top spots in the women’s 800m – Alexandra Brown (2:15.1) and Zoe Tompkins (2:20.0) scored maximum A and B points. Kate Brown clocked 2:24.5.

Gaby Reynolds front ran all 12.5 laps of her 5,000m to win in 18:00.4. Aimee Hargreaves placed second in the 1,500m A string in 4:51.0.

Isaac Ogunlade scored a narrow win in the 400m with 50.3, while Yahia El-Tanani won the triple jump with 10.95m. Sprinters Byron Robinson and Adam Thompson were second in the A and B 200m races with 23.5 and 23.4 respectively.

Fiona de Mauny ran a season’s best 400m of 59.0 in finishing second in the A string.

Harriers’ A team of Thompson, de Mauny, Alex Brown and Ogunlade finished second in their 4x400m relay. Nathan Latigo, Tompkins, Kate Brown and Ludewick combined as clear B string winners.