Herne Hill Harriers produced strong results domestically and abroad last weekend

BY GEOFF JERWOOD

Herne Hill Harriers produced strong performances in road races, cross country and indoor track and field events both domestically and abroad at the weekend.

Two Harriers men and one woman travelled to Spain to race in the Valencia Marathon Trinidad Alfonso EDP and all three returned with PBs.

In a stacked international field, Carl Delaney was the fastest in red and black as he broke through what had been an elusive 2 hours 30 minutes barrier as he placed 185th overall in 2:28.18, a PB by more than five minutes.

Marc Geraghty’s 2:31.45 represented a two-minute improvement on his PB. Evie McDermott also joined the PB party as she ran under four hours for the first time, clocking 3:52.30.

Robin Jones was equally impressive at the California International Marathon as he revised his 26.2 miles PB by around three-and-a-half minutes.

After a fast first half in just under 76 minutes he finished in 2:35.05. It puts him 21st in the M45 UK rankings for 2021.

Brandon Dewar was third in the Lisbon 10km road race in 32:13 on Sunday.

Jack Brotchie and Eric Dol finished in 76:51 and 78:15 respectively in the half marathon race at the same venue.

Katie Moore place 10th woman in a big PB of 36:00 on Saturday at the Seeley Cup 10km road race in Belfast.

Sophie Harris placed sixth (16:47) in the elite women’s race at a very windy Podium 5km in Leicester, probably the biggest domestic road race of the weekend. She was in contention for second place until the closing stages. Annabel Hobday recorded a PB of 18:12 in 21st place.

Saturday’s cross country action featured Harriers athletes who were representing their schools or universities.

A number of Herne Hill youngsters raced at the English Schools Cross Country Cup Grand Final at Tretherras School, Newquay in Cornwall.

The highest placed in any of the age groups was Poppy Craig-McFeely of Putney High School – fourth in the senior girls race.

The Annual Oxford v Cambridge Varsity Cross Country match took place on Wimbledon Common and saw a rare outing for Alexandra Brown. A Great Britain Juniors track international back in 2019, she raced superbly over the varied and challenging terrain of the four-mile lap in the women’s race. Brown led her Oxford team to a win over their rivals, finishing in third place.

Some masters athletes were competing in the Veterans AC Indoor Track and Field Championship at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre. Allan Long was the M75 gold medallist in four events, winning his 60m race in 9.40, his 32.52 saw him prevail by just two hundredths of a second in the 200m.

Long was also the best of his age group in the long jump (3.53m) and triple jump (7.61m).

Giuseppe Minetti claimed the M50 gold medals in the 60m (7.72) and the 200m (25.46).