Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Bramwell wins Hackney Half Marathon

Sam Bramwell was a clear winner of the Hackney Half Marathon for the second successive year.

At least 20 runners from Herne Hill Harriers completed the course on a warm Sunday morning, writes Geoff Jerwood.

Bramwell recorded a runaway PB of 67:56 to claim the victory and defend his title from 2022, almost three minutes ahead of good opposition.

After his recent 5km road time of 14:31 in Battersea Park this performance further underlined his strength and his undoubted potential.

Matt Cartwright also improved his PB substantially as he placed 18th in 73:35.

Other Harriers included Terry Sweet (81:39), 17-year-old David Aisa Miller (84:30), Will Ellison (84:37) and Pedro Henrique Pinto (85:23).

Herne Hill’s senior track and field team placed second in the opening Southern Athletics League match at Tooting Bec on Saturday.

Harriers men’s sprints were strong in both scoring team and non-scorers and inevitably they made up a very impressive 4x100m relay team which streaked home to win in 43.2.

Men’s team captain Andris Thorpe won the A string 100m into a headwind with 11.2 and U17 Rikaion Smith ran the same time and won by the same margin in the B string race.

In the non-scoring, Rajay Robinson and Byron Robinson ran 11.2 and 11.3 respectively. Thorpe was then second in the 200m in 23.5 and U17 Fred Hake was a clear winner in the B race, again in 23.5.

Harvey Kande ran 52.6 for second in the 400m on his 18th birthday.

The middle distance was a mixture of the young and the older. U17 Mori Alimi, in his first match, ran a commendable 2.04.8 for second in the 800m and veteran Mike Tay won the B string in 2.07.5.
Alimi later claimed another second in the 1,500m 4.13.5.

M50 England cross country international Simon Coombes produced a B string 1,500m win in 4.17.

M40 Jeff Cunningham ran a solo 3,000m steeplechase to win in 10.58 and U20 Harry Bell came second in the 3,000m in 9.04.1, a PB by 0.3 of a second.

The ladies were led by Joyce Kalombo and Jaydine Robinson. Kalombo won the A string 100m in 12.8 and was second in the 200m in 26.1, both into strong headwinds.

Robinson won the long jump with 5.39m, only six centimetres off her best and also the javelin with 20.65m. Kalombo gained maximum points in the B string long jump with 4.96m.

The women’s 3,000m saw a double win for Jenny Nandi and Cecily Day. Nandi’s time of 10.50.3 was just three seconds outside her best and Day took almost a minute from her PB with 10.50.6.

Two young athletes rounded off the afternoon in the 2,000m steeplechase. Racing only against each other, Kaitlin Hewitt came out top with 7.48.3 with Izzy Perry just behind in 7.49.0.

Hewitt’s run was a debut at this event, while Perry knocked 45 seconds off her PB to conclude a successful first league match of the summer.

PICTURE: GRAHAM SMITH