Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Harrier have four medal wins at English Schools Championships
Herne Hill Harriers provided the largest number of athletes for the London Schools team last weekend at the English Schools Championships, writes Geoff Jerwood.
The South London club brought home four medals from the “kids Olympics”, held at the Alexander Stadium, the venue for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Solomon Thompson-Moodley, pictured, led the medals charge with a superb gold as he won the junior boys high jump last Friday. A clearance of 1.84m saw him three centimetres above the silver medal winner and added a whopping eight centimetres to his PB.
Two other Herne Hill athletes claimed silver medals on Saturday. Ella Rennie was second in the junior girls 200m final in 25.90 after setting a PB of 25.27 in her heat the day before. Rennie was also a member of the London junior girls gold medal sprint relay team.
Eliza Nicholson was only two hundredths of a second away from a win in the inter girls’ 3,000m in one of the tightest finishes of the championships with her 9:47.06 clocking in a tactical race.
The first two in each of the intermediate girls and boys finals gained selection for the England Schools team, who will compete at the SIAB home international meet in Grangemouth, Scotland on July 15, an event at which Nicholson will renew her rivalry with Saturday’s race winner.
There was also a bronze medal for Saskia King in the senior girls 100m as she recorded a PB of 11.90 and was then also a 4x100m relay gold medallist in her age group along with her club-mate Jaydine Robinson, who had earlier competed in the long jump.
More top-10 placings were secured by Fred Hake, who set a Herne Hill club U17M 400m record of 49.01 in his inter boys before placing fourth in a strong final (50.49). Keeran Sriskandarajah was fourth in the inter boys 800m, clocking 1:55.17 in his heat and 1:57.52 final on consecutive days.
Lily Rose Brown and Jasmine Nkoso were fifth in the inter girls 300m and junior girls shot respectively with Brown’s 39.94 heat being her season’s best time so far while Nkoso threw 11.45m. Rikaion Smith was seventh in the inter boys 100m clocking a 11.12 heat and 11.05 final. Alexander Wilson was 10th in the inter boys 1,500m steeplechase with 4:53.76.
Harriers international middle-distance star Katie Snowden got herself back on track after recent illness as she placed eighth in a strong Diamond League women’s 1,500m in a very wet Stockholm, clocking 4:05.28 in the testing weather conditions.
Snowden came down from her training base in St Moritz to race a world class field a week before the upcoming UK Championship and World Trials in Manchester where she will lead a handful of Herne Hill entrants at this major national event hoping to qualify for the Great Britain team for the August World Athletics Championship in Budapest.
Fellow M50 Ben Paviour ran 3,000m in 9:22.13, closely followed in by M40 Jeff Cunningham in 9:25.28.
The Dave Clarke Mile races, named after a British cross country legend from the local Hercules Wimbledon club, were run in good conditions on their track in the park. Both the mile finish times and the 1,500m splits en route were officially recorded electronically, giving a double PB opportunity for some.
HHH fastest on the night was Lewis Laylee with his mile in 4:18.03 1,500m 4:00.85 for seventh in a strong A race at the end of the evening. Also at the faster end, U20 Harry Bell ran a 4:29.69 mile and 4:12.89 for 1,500m, both PBs, Seve Loudon 4:41.13 and 4:21.33, M45 Raj Paranandi 4:41.22 and 4:22.56 – both PBs – and Ross Brown 4:49.78 and 4:31.39.
St George’s University Hospital athletes James Brown and Grace Leyland ran good PBs. Brown ran 5:14.16 and 4:54.67 and Leyland 5:15.94 and 4:55.63, while M55 Norman Urquia and W45 Nikki Sturzaker also claimed double PBs with Urquia 5:14.77 and 4:55.48 and Sturzaker 5:17.76 and 4:57.11.
There was a race win for U20 David Aisa Miller in a PB 4:56.93 and U15B Thomas Clerkin ran 4:50.33. Other younger athletes included U13 boys Edward Cunniffe 4:52.64, Zaccheaus Kelman 4:57.61, Luca Boulton 5:24.60 and Herbert Clark ran 5:38.12, with U15 girls Maeve Minielly 5:26.11 and Lily Kitto 5:41.0. U15 boy Alfie Bryan ran a PB of 5:18.8.