Athletics round-up: Herne Hill Harriers and Hercules Wimbledon win team golds at South of England Cross Country Championships
HERNE HILL HARRIERS
Herne Hill Harriers U15 boys won team gold medals at the South of England Cross Country Championships at Beckenham Place Park on Saturday, writes Geoff Jerwood.
The narrow victory was not without drama as the provisional race results showed that they placed second, one point behind Cambridge & Coleridge and the trophy and medals were presented on this basis.
Shortly afterwards an online results update added in some missing runners and the revised team scores showed both clubs had the same total points for their four scorers. The gold and silver positions were, however, reversed as Harriers’ final team member placed in front of his Cambridge counterpart to give a win on count back.
All was eventually resolved, with the winning quartet of Caspian Holmes fourth, Leau Roch 15th, Tommy Clerkin 21st and Luca Boulton 30th duly awarded their medals and the team winners’ plaque.
For Holmes this was some consolation for his individual finish, where he missed out on a podium place by no more than a second. There was excellent back-up behind the medallists as Ed Cunniffe was 35th, Arnold Duan 43rd and James Clements-Nash 56th.
Herne Hill’s young athletes middle distance coach James McDonald enjoyed more medal success as Skyla O’Brien claimed bronze in the U13 girls race.
Lucy Jones made her England debut at the Hannut Cross Cup on a chilly Sunday around laps of a very muddy circuit in Belgium in a 9km senior women’s race.
Far from being overawed, Jones raced positively from the gun and was in the leading group during the first of six laps until four African athletes accelerated away from the field.
Jones continued to run strongly as a battle between three runners finally saw her finish an excellent ninth. The 26-year-old was the second of four English women.
In just a year since joining the club, Jones’ rapid progress is an inspiration to her training mates.
She said: “My main focus is, and will continue to be, always to have fun. The results will inevitably come if you keep showing up and enjoying yourself.”
Her next big race is the National Cross Country Championship at Parliament Hill in late February.
One of Jones’s closest friends and training partners could be on a similar trajectory as Sophie Tooley continues to raise eyebrows with her recent performances.
Tooley finished a superb fifth in the senior women’s race at Beckenham and led her team to eighth place in the Southern Championships. The scoring team was completed by Shannon Sinclair 70th, Karen Ellison 76th and Sue Swaine 79th.
Following the win for the U15 boys, the U13 boys placed fifth, their scoring team comprised Josiah Aldham 10th, Henry Kucerov 16th, John Reynolds 59th and Ben Thomas 72nd.
The U13 girls matched the eighth placing of the senior women, led by O’Brien in third, then completed by Isobel McLennan 55th, Paras Ubhi 95th and Eva Burke 96th. The U15 girls team of Florence Mills 45th, Sofia Mendes 50th, Clementine Cole 68th and Assise Ubhi 140th finished 12th.
The senior men’s squad provided sixteen finishers in the biggest field of the day in the final race. The team also placed 12th, their scoring six runners being Andrew Clarke 38th, Joe Elliott 101st, Jeff Cunningham 106th, Max Rose 179th, Fintan Kearney 199th and Mat Hudson 207th.
HERCULES WIMBLEDON
Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club had another glittering Saturday at Beckenham Place Park as they secured medals at the South of England Cross Country Championships, writes George Mallett.
The day got off to a great start as the U13 boys took home team gold, edging out Aldershot, Farnham and District and Blackheath & Bromley Harriers for top spot.
Despite one junior suffering an early fall and another running with a slight illness, the four counters’ combined total of 121 points was enough to secure the title, nine points ahead of Aldershot.
Thomas Hennigan led home the quartet in 20th place with Ivan Derian just seven seconds behind in 27th.
Max Harrison, negotiating a slight illness was 32nd, four seconds back with Alex Derian in 42nd. Such is the consistency of the quartet, who add to English National Cross Country gold last year, that only 18 seconds separated their four counters.
Anas Birki, only two second behind Alex Derian, was 47th and unlucky not to score.
The senior men made it three consecutive podiums in the event, securing silver for the second year in succession. GB international Alex Milne led the team home in fourth. He was only seven seconds adrift of the medals and bettered his previous best in the competition by nine places.
The colour of the medal was largely secured thanks to several athletes overtaking their Kent AC opposition in the final straight.
Andrew Penney took home 17th with Jonathan Cornish in 20th. Rhys Boorman and Fred Slemeck were 26th and 27th respectively with James Stockings rounding out the scoring in 42nd.
For Boorman, the race represented a 28-place improvement on his previous best in the competition with Slemeck adding a fifth top-30 finish. Ed Mallett, in 46th, was 11 seconds outside the scoring places.
A mix-up in the results initially had Hercules out of the medal places but the final scores left Hercules on 136, five ahead of Kent with Highgate Harriers clear winners on 94.
In other races, strong individual performances included Theo Creed in the U15 boys. In the youngest of the two years, Creed was fifth, just 10 seconds behind winner Finn Maclennan.
Benjy Street, competing in the U20 men’s competition, was an impressive sixth. He led four counters of Jack Hobden (42nd), Tom Davies (56th) and Isaac Lutaya (62nd) to team fifth place.
Hercules were also fifth in the U13 girls. Anna Wait and Jessica Wood were two seconds apart, in 11th and 14th respectively, with Alexia Gaudin in 67th and Gwyneth Morgan in 84th.