Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Olympic hopeful Kristal Awuah claims double gold

BY GEOFF JERWOOD

Kristal Awuah claimed two national age group gold medals at the England Athletics U20 and U23 championships at Bedford over the weekend.

Awuah, who is aiming to be at the Tokyo Olympics with GB, was one of four athletes from Herne Hill Harriers competing at the event.

She dominated the final of the U23W 100m on Saturday in 11.67 after a clear win in her earlier heat in 11.75, both times recorded while facing strong headwinds.

She returned on Sunday to complete a very impressive double win in a straight final of the 200m, her time of 23.24 being a good season opener at this distance. The wind was much lighter, but still blowing against the sprinters.

Awuah looked powerful despite not having run any 200m races this year, or doing any specific training for the longer sprint. She said: “I’m really surprised, as I’ve been concentrating on the 100, so I didn’t really expect this -especially as it was into a headwind.”

Awuah is seventh on the UK women’s 200m list this year and top U23.

Also on the national medals rostrum was Ore Adamson, who claimed a bronze in the U23W triple jump with a best on the day of 12.03m. She placed sixth on Saturday in the long jump with 5.77m.

Neither Awuah nor Adamson would have appreciated the cool weather conditions that Bedford offered in comparison to the tracks in Texas where they have both separately been based in recent weeks, Adamson has just returned home from university.

Alexandra Brown came fifth in the U23W 1,500m final, clocking 4:27.78 in a quite tactical race.

Ignatius Abebrese was sixth in the U20 men’s triple jump with 13.98m.

Southern League athletics returned on Sunday after an absence since 2019, with a match in Battersea Park. Herne Hill Harriers played hosts to Belgrave Harriers, Croydon Harriers and South London Harriers.

Highlights from the Herne Hill team were provided by a busy and successful Fiona de Mauny, who claimed wins in the women’s 800m (2:14.8) and 1,500m (4:46.0), the latter a season’s best time. In between her two wins, she finished second in the A string 400m with another season’s best of 60.4.

Sarah Grover was a clear winner of the women’s 3,000m (10:11.7) and U20 Niyah Costley produced a good PB to win the long jump (5.47m).

In the men’s events, Isaac Ogunlade won the 400m hurdles in 55.6 and Aaron Brown took the triple jump with 13.17m.

Two U17 athletes not only helped to fill the middle distance team but ran PBs as Harvey Kande placed third in the 800m (2:04.0) and Robin Bebbington came fourth in the 1,500m (4:27.7). Jacob Alley ran a PB in the U20 400m (52.8) before contributing to the second placed Herne Hill 4x400m relay team.