Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Medal-winning effort at South of England Indoor Champs

Herne Hill Harriers athletes took home medals from the recent South of England Indoor Championships at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre, writes Geoff Jerwood.

Solomon Thompson-Moodley claimed a place at the top of both the podium and also the early year UK U15 boys high jump ranking list with a PB leap of 1.72m.

His winning margin on the day was an impressive seven centimetres over his closest rival for his gold medal performance.

Four silver medals were won by Harriers members. Ella Rennie was second in the U15 girls’ 200m final, clocking 26.62 after a season’s best 26.45 when winning her semi-final earlier in the day.

Alexander Abebrese was runner up in the U17 men’s shot with 12.79m which was also a season’s best.

Keeran Sriskandarajah ran the fastest time of the day in the U17 men’s 800m to win his heat in 1:58.55, but was then beaten into second place in the final as he clocked 2:01.38.

The race winner is ranked second in the UK for the age group with Sriskandarajah’s heat time third on this list.

Sasha Nolan was second in the U13 girls’ long jump with a PB of 4.44m.

Fred Hake missed out on a medal by the narrowest of margins in the U17 men’s 400m, placing fourth in 52.10, one hundredth of a second behind the bronze medallist. Zico Blake was also fourth in his event with 5.56m in the U15 boys long jump.

Surrey U20 women’s champion Poppy Craig-McFeely competed in her first international cross country event, placing 11th in her age group at the Lotto Cross Cup de Hannut in Belgium.

With a strong performance on a snow covered course she was the second finisher in the South of England team, gaining invaluable overseas racing experience in the lead up to this weekend’s Southern Championship in Beckenham.

There was more indoor success as Annabel Hobday ran a big PB for 1,500m clocking 4:31.64 at the Cardiff Met Grand Prix behind international Jenny Nesbitt.

Hobday’s time qualifies her to be invited to race at next month’s UK Indoor Championship in Birmingham. Saskia Millard showed good recovery from recent illness as she won the women’s 3,000m race by more than 10 seconds.

Mike Cummings (M35) ran 2:00.25 in his first 800m race of the year at the London Indoor Games at Lee Valley.

The Veterans AC Cross Country Championships held on Wimbledon Common saw a big turnout of 18 Harriers members.

These included a good number of individual medal winners. Oliver Morrison, sixth overall was third M45, Jonathan Ratcliffe, second M55, and Mike Boyle was first M60.

Nikki Sturzaker claimed the W45 gold medal and a trophy for finishing first female overall in the race.

Vic Maughn (third M60), Waldy Pauzers (first M65), Alexandra Marginean (second W35) and Gillian Wheeldon (third W60) completed the list of Herne Hill medal winners on the day.

Ratcliffe followed up his cross country exploits by placing ninth M50-59 at the Farnborough Half Marathon with 80:46 on Sunday.