Athletics round-up: Herne Hill Harriers’ Katie Snowden achieves Olympic qualifying standard in 1,500m

HERNE HILL HARRIERS

Herne Hill Harriers’ female distance racing was in the spotlight in the last week with a club senior women’s record and an Olympic qualifying standard as main headline acts, writes Geoff Jerwood.

The Highgate Harriers ‘Night of the 10K PBs’ meeting was held on Saturday at Parliament Hill. This was an extravaganza of high-level club and world-class 10,000m track races.

The international flavour was illustrated by Georgie Grgec placing fourth in the second of the women’s races behind athletes from Italy, Holland and Greece.

Grgec reclaimed her Herne Hill women’s club 10,000m record by clocking 32:43.18, following Phoebe Anderson’s recent debut run which had first taken the mark below 33 minutes earlier in the month.

Her excellent run was an improvement of well over a minute on her previous track best for the 25 laps as she now seeks to bring her track performances in line with her stellar road and cross country exploits.

There was a strong track season opener for Harriers’ English women’s 1,500m record holder Katie Snowden on Saturday.

Seeking to test her form after completing a block of endurance training at altitude in Arizona, Snowden ran 4:00.89 for eighth place in a stellar field at the Los Angeles Grand Prix meet. This was also an Olympic qualifying time and moves her to pole position in the UK early season women’s 1,500m rankings for 2024.

Her next big race will be over the same distance at this weekend’s Nike Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meeting in Eugene, Oregon.

Four others raced in Herne Hill colours at Highgate. Brandon Dewar was 19th of 35 men in the second of the nine 10,000m races in 31:19.67. Lewis Laylee finished 22nd of 38 in the opening race of the day in 32:07.66.

In the third race, which was the first of the three women’s races, debuts were made by Grace Leyland, 25th of 38 starters in 37:58.38 and Jenny Nandi, 28th in 38:15.08.

There were also 800m races for younger athletes and Keeran Sriskandarajah placed 10th in a fast U20 race clocking 1:52.89.

Sophie Tooley and Lucy Jones eclipsed old 3,000m PBs from their teenage years a decade ago as Tooley clocked 9:43.61 and Jones 9:47.13.

Herne Hill hosted the first Southern Athletics League fixture of the season at Tooting Bec.

Continuing the themes of female middle-distance strength, the women’s 3,000m featured a dominant one-two for Sarah Grover and Megan Gildea.

Grover led for the great majority of the race to win with 10:05.60, close to her PB. Gildea won the B string in second overall and recording a 24 seconds PB of 10:22.60. U17 Sophie Jack won the 1,500m in 4:49.7, another big PB.

On the men’s side, U20s Harry Bell and Charlie Wood won the A and B string 1,500m in 4:23.1 and 4:31.0. Another men’s double first was in the high jump, with U17 Solomon Thompson-Moodley winning the A with a clearance of 1.80m and U20 Oluwafikayomi Awolope the B string with 1.75m.

There was sprint victories for U20 Rikaion Smith (11.2) and Andris Thorpe (11.4) in the A and B string 100m, Shanpy Sealy (22.9) and U17 Fred Hake (22.9) A and B 200m and U17 Ella Rennie won both the A string 100m (12.6) and 200m (25.8).

Joyce Kalombo was the winner of the B string 200m (26.5) and 400m (63.0), with U17 Lily-Rose Brown first in the A 400m in 61.4.

HERCULES WIMBLEDON

Hercules Wimbledon enjoyed strong representation at the Night of The 10,000m PB’s in Highgate on Saturday, writes George Mallett.

Andrew Penney led the charge over the 25-lap distance, clocking 30:17.85 for 15th place in race five of the event.

Thomas Whorton and Theo Creed took part in the U15 boys invitational 800m, finishing sixth and eighth respectively. Creed’s 2:07.52 clocking marked a small personal best over a shorter distance than he is used to competing.

U15 girl Isabella Harrison was an impressive third, running a PB of 2:12.37, an almost two second improvement on her previous mark. Brother Max, competing in the U13 boys race, was an equally solid fourth, running 2:18.22.

Hercules got off to a tough start in the opening fixture of the top division of the Southern Athletics League in Basingstoke, finishing sixth.

This is the club’s second year in the top division, having been promoted through the divisions between 2021 and 2022 but the team were challenged by concurrent competitions taking away much of a generally very strong sprint contingent.

Brighton & Hove won a competitive fixture on 311.5 points with Hercules on 104, The top five sides all scored more than 250 points.

Highlights came in the men’s sprint and middle distance events, as they often have in recent years. Ronan McCardle secured maximum points in the B string of the 800m, running 2:02.3 to win by more than two seconds. Former cross-country captain Fred Slemeck ran 15:18.7 to take maximum points in the men’s A-string 5,000m, with Eoin Brady well clear in the B’s (15:24.3).

Alex Sutton was second in the B string 1,500m (4:06.6). Benjy Street ran a PB by 10 seconds to record 4:03.2 for third in the A string.

Jaleel Roper and Ryan Facey secured second places in the A and B string 100m respectively, running identical times of 11.1. Adam Ofeimun ran 22.6 for third in the A-string 200m. Coach Devonte Casely-Hayford was fourth in the B string, running 23.6.

U17 Javon Blake ran an outstanding 51.5 for runner-up in the A 400m, a big PB by half a second.

Charlie Redwood won the B string high jump (1.75m) with Eli Amusan’s 1.80m clearance in the A’s securing fourth. Redwood was third in the men’s B triple jump (10.85m).

The 4x100m men’s quartet won by more than a second.

Charlotte Lam contributed all the female points for the club, scoring in the 400m, 800m, long jump and shot put.

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