Herne Hill Harriers’ round-up: Sriskandarajah lands new PB at Commonwealth Youth Games

The Commonwealth Youth Games athletics events were held in the Haseley Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain last week. Keeran Sriskandarajah of Herne Hill Harriers represented the home nation Trinidad and Tobago in the men’s 800m, writes Geoff Jerwood.

On Wednesday evening he ran a superb PB of 1:53.85, placing fourth in his semi final. This was only half a second outside a very long standing Herne Hill Harriers club U17 men’s 800m record.

Having qualified as a fastest loser with a big effort, it was then a tough turnaround to race in the final less than 24 hours later. Sriskandarajah finished eighth in last week’s final in 1:59.89 to cap a great experience and taking home a PB along with the memories of a big Games.

Just over a week earlier he had competed in the Trinidad and Tobago National Senior Championships and won two medals. First a bronze in the 1,500m, clocking a PB 4:03, and then the following day in the 800m he clocked 1:55.63 to add a silver to his collection.

Herne Hill young athletes were also in action over the weekend at the South of England age group U13/U15/U17 Championships at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre.

On Saturday, Jasmine Nkoso won a bronze medal in the U15G high jump with a PB of 1:55m.

Then in Sunday’s events, Harriers’ athletes claimed two of the three medals in the U17W 400m, as Lily-Rose Brown won silver in 57.84, closely followed by Lucy Wright in third place with a PB of 58.04.

Caspian Holmes was third for another bronze in the U15B 1,500m in 4.22.04 with Tommy Clerkin fifth in a PB of 4.27.87.

Zachaaeus Kelman was another bronze medal winner in the U13B 800m with 2:19, this one being a PB by around two seconds.

On Saturday, the final BMC Grand Prix meet took place at Trafford in Manchester. In the men’s D 1,500m race Daniel Shaw finished sixth in 3:54.22, a PB by almost a second. In the women’s B 1,500m race Rachel Gibson was ninth in 4:28.98.

Also on the track, at the Watford Harriers Open Meeting on Wednesday, Gibson’s Northern Ireland compatriot Thomas Patterson ran his first sub two minutes 800m, clocking 1:59.13.

In weekend road racing action, Brandon Dewar ran 15:06 for 55th at the Podium 5km road race in Bute Park, Cardiff on Saturday, while at the RunThrough 10km in Battersea Park saw Gaby Reynolds finish first female in 37:58.

Then on Sunday on the other side of the world, the huge City2Surf 14km road race took place in Sydney, Australia. Jack Hillier was 114th overall in 49:27 and Jennifer Clancy was 41st female in 55:26 on a very hilly course. The Sydney race claims to be the world’s largest fun run with around 80,000 runners registered to run and close to 70,000 finishers.

Sunday also saw the Serpentine London Summer League 10km in Battersea Park, with Muhamud Haile finishing 22nd overall and first M55 in a PB time of 36:50.
Earlier in the week, on Tuesday evening, there was a strong turnout of 14 red and black vests with a string of good performances at the Sri Chinmoy 5km road race in the very popular Battersea Park.

Andrew Clarke was fifth in 15:19, John Franklin 12th in 15:45, Matt Cartwright 16th in 15:52, Joe Elliott 22nd in 16:06 and Alex Russell 26th in 16:13. Next were Ross Brown 16:35, Greg Mills 17:26 and Adam Westbury 17:27. Norman Urquia was second M55 with 17:37 and Jonathan Ratcliffe third M55 in 17:52, with other Harriers in the results being James Brown 17:44, Will Ellison 17:47, Jonny Chambers 18:52 and Fabio Maroni 23:54.

MAIN PICTURE CREDIT: DANNY SRISKANDARAJAH

INSET PICTURE CREDIT: JAMES MCDONALD