Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Georgie Grgec makes light work of competition in Surrey CCL final

Herne Hill Harriers had one individual race winner and two age group teams crowned as champions in the final Surrey Cross Country League fixture at Lloyd Park, writes Geoff Jerwood.

It was a fixture rearranged at short notice after the originally scheduled event was cancelled due to Storm Eunice.

With nearly all of the divisional cumulative positions already done and dusted this was almost inevitably effectively a dead rubber, but the much lower than usual overall turnouts did not detract from the quality of racing at the front of the fields which saw very good level runners winning the races throughout the day

The most emphatic race win of the day came in senior women’s Division One, where Harriers’ Georgie Grgec re-emerged after almost 18 months away from competitive action to make light of very muddy conditions to romp to a victory margin of 42 seconds over the 8km course.

Although the field lacked its normal depth, it did include at least one athlete who will represent Surrey in tomorrow’s UK Inter Counties Cross Country Championship in Loughborough.

Herne Hill’s U13 boys and U15 girls won the league in their categories – both rounding off their campaign with wins.

The boys’ quartet of Caspian Holmes (third), Jack McLennan (fifth), Lucas Heath (11th) and Edward Cunniffe (12th) took the team win.

The winning U15 girls were Orla Carroll (second), Eva O’Hanlon (third), Vivi Marshall (10th) and Grace O’Hanlon (12th).

The U13 girls – Sophie Jack (second), Florence Mills (seventh), Maeve Minielly (ninth) and Lilly Kitto (12th) – were winners on the day but finished second in the overall league table.

The U15 and U17 boys run in a combined race with team scores across the two age groups and Herne Hill placed second on the day and third in the league.

Oka Buchan placed seventh and Keeran Sriskandarajah was eighth with Freddie Hake in 15th and David Aisa Miller finishing 22nd.

The senior teams, apart from having the women’s race winner, were quite depleted in numbers. The women’s tenth place did not reflect their regular level.

The scoring contributions of Grgec in first place, Kegan Gildea (30th), Rosie Crampin (61st), Jess Winfield (81st) and Alex Marginean (84th) ensured a final Division 1 position of fifth A team, while the men’s scoring ten runners finished seventh team both on the day and in the overall standings.

The men’s scorers were Jack Hillier (27th), Jeff Cunningham (31st and second M40), Andrew Perfect (32nd and first M45), Dan Shaw (33rd), George Withers (44th), Jack Brotchie (47th), Ben Millar (74th), debutant Kieran Silsby (79th), Jacob Alley (80th and fourth U20) and Fraser Hagell (83rd).

Mike Cummings won the M35 1,500m in 4:08.54 at the British Master Indoor Championship at Lee Valley Athletics Centre over the weekend.

Nikki Sturzaker took gold in the W45 1,500m gold and silver in the 800m in 2:35.87 and 5:26.60 respectively.

Allan Long won M75 triple jump gold (8.05m) and 60m silver (9.42).

Honorary general secretary Steve Bosley was the joint winner of the award for Outstanding Contribution at Sport Active Wandsworth Annual Sports Awards. Club coach and team manager Steve Knight was one of the winners of Volunteer of the Year award.

Top international middle distance athlete Katie Snowden shared the Wandsworth Sports Person of the Year 2021 accolade with marathon runner Steph Davis of Clapham Chasers.

Main Pic: Georgie Grgec a long way ahead of the others in Saturday’s Surrey League senior women’s Division 1 race