Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Katie Snowden just edged out at Bromley Twilight Meeting

BY GEOFF JERWOOD

Katie Snowden’s track racing return from injury continued apace at the Bromley Twilight Meeting on Friday evening in Norman Park.

The Balham-based international claimed a very close second place in strong women’s A 800m race in a fast time of 2:02.40.

Very windy conditions and athletes making their seasonal debuts at the distance led to a more tactical affair with all five competitors in contention until the final bend.

European U20 champion Isabelle Boffey stole just enough daylight to keep the strongly charging Snowden at bay in the finishing straight as she prevailed over the Herne Hill Harrier by three tenths of a second.

It was Snowden’s first 800m race in two year and sees her claim a top-10 UK ranking position at both 800m and 1,500m – with every expectation that she can move further up in these lists.

This was a middle-distance track meet of exceptionally high quality for a locally promoted event and it saw the main men’s 3,000m race produce the four fastest times at the distance in the world so far this year.

Other Herne Hill athletes competing were Great Britain junior international Saskia Millard, who clocked a PB of 9:20.28 in placing fifth in the women’s A 3,000m in her first race as a senior athlete. Sarah Grover produced 10:03.02 for third in the women’s C 3,000m.

Herne Hill Harriers had 14 athletes in action at a 5km road race in Milton Keynes. The event was run in waves of 10 runners per race with strong winds not helping the times.

The chip times recorded for the Harriers in fastest first order were Carl Delaney (15:04), Nick Dewar (15;10), Andrew Warburton (15:34), Brandon Dewar (15:35), Jack Brotchie (15:37), Marc Geraghty (15:39), Raj Paranandi (16:03), Matt Cartwright (16:30), Myles Preston (16:30), Jeff Cunningham (16:37), Simon Coombes (16:53), Steph McCall (17:00), Tony Macdowall (18:16) and Julia Wedmore (8:51).

There was also an excellent run in Northern Ireland on Saturday by Jessica Craig – she ran a big 20 seconds PB for 5km of 16:29, a time that has only been eclipsed by three of the club’s female athletes.

The South London Athletics Network of clubs jointly organised a sprints only meeting at Tooting Bec on Saturday with Harriers members producing some strong runs.

In the 100m races they were led by U20 Memphis Ayoade with a PB 11.14, with Victor Nzolele clocking 11.17 and another U20 Micah Goode (11.54).

Isaac Ogunlade timed 36.67 in the rarely run 300m distance and in the 400m, James Stocker and U20 Dylan Sweet ran PBs of 52.25 and 53.84 respectively – while U17 Oli Hector recorded a PB of 54.83.