Bronze medal for Herne Hill Harriers’ senior men at Southern Cross Country Relay Championship
Herne Hill Harriers’ senior men’s A team claimed bronze medals at the Southern Cross Country Relay Championship at Wormwood Scrubs.
The were led off superbly by Mike Cummings (13:50) as he handed over in fourth. Angus Butler (14:07) did a great job to see the team into second place at the halfway stage before a resurgent Andrew Warburton (14:21) stayed right in the medals before handing over to Dave Mulvee (14:16).
Mulvee has been representing Harriers for 15 years in his endeavours to finally win his first Southern medal, so it was fitting that he brought his team over the line and also after a torturous journey to the venue.
The men’s B team finished 10th but appeared as ninth in the results as the fifth-place side was non scoring. Simon Coombes (12th in 14:26), Joe Elliott (10th 14:50), Charlie Osborne (15:30) and Eoin Brady (15:13) were the top B team at the event.
The best-placed Herne Hill young athletes were the U13 girls and boys. The U13 girls A and B teams placed fourth and tenth, the U13 boys were fifth and the U17 men finished 22nd in their respective age groups. The U13 girls were led out by Eva O’Hanlon handing over in 13th (8:08), Rosalie Laban then moved up to ninth (8:28) with a very fine final leg from Sophia Sahai finishing off an excellent team performance in fourth place. Sahai’s time of 7:43 was the fifth-fastest overall in her category.
The U13 boys placed fifth and were the fourth A team courtesy of Josh Lee Baum, fourth on first leg (7:18), Fabien Whitelock handing over in fifth (7:29) and Oak Buchan retaining this overall position and crossing the line together with the fourth place finisher with 7:26. Baum was seventh fastest of all U13 boys in the race.
The U17 men’s team of Jacob Alley, Sam Camenzuli and Dylan Sweet placed 22nd, while Maisie Collis and Harriet Alexander were part of an incomplete U17 women’s team as were Annabel Hobday and Jemima Hayward-Bhika in the U20 women’s event.
The Herne Hill women showed good depth at both Wormwood Scrubs and Morden with the senior teams at the Southern Cross relays finishing in the “wrong” order with the B team placed an excellent seventh ahead of the A team (13th). It was the first time Herne Hill have fielded a complete women’s B team at this event as they gear up for the National Cross Country Relay Championship at Mansfield on November 2.
The A team played catch up after Nicole Montgomery’s first leg run (14:38) with Fiona de Mauny (12:47) and Helena Corbin (12:16) moving through to 13th, while the B team were a revelation with super runs from Sarah Grover (eighth in 12:21), Julia Wedmore (fifth with 12:38) and Monika Gajek (13:05).
Ben Paviour and Gary Ironmonger picked up individual county silver medals in the M45 and M55 categories at the Surrey Masters Cross Championship in Morden Park.
On Sunday there were five marathon racers, three of whom ran PBs. Myles Preston took eight minutes off his PB in Abingdon as he produced a significant negative split to move up from 15th to finish fifth (2:41:39). Henry Brown had an even bigger PB (2:48:30) in Amsterdam.
Three masters’ marathon men were also in action as Jonathan Ratcliffe won a British Masters Championship M50 bronze medal with his 2:46:24 at the York Marathon.
Matt Munro (M40) recorded a good 2:55:37.Trevor Chilton (M50) ran 3:10:16 in Abingdon.
Matt Cartwright ran not one, but two PBs as he clocked 35:37 for 10km in Battersea Park on Saturday morning and then 58:53 in the Great South Run in Portsmouth on Sunday.
Josh Pewter clocked a PB in Amsterdam, but over the half marathon distance (74:12).
Back in Battersea M45 Robin Jones returned to his best form with his 10km time of 34:02 being only four seconds outside his lifetime fastest, while Bryn Reynolds also recorded 36:44 in this race.